Android Community |
- DROID Bionic update rolling out now, here’s the change log
- Google Chrome Browser officially lands on Android — faster and smarter
- StyleTag app brings out the fashionable side of your Android phone
- Verizon’s double data returns on February 10th
- Huawei’s 6.68mm Ascend P1 S gets March launch in China
- RIM claims BlackBerry apps make more money than Android apps
- Toshiba AT200 Excite tablet goes on sale in the UK
- Motorola DROID 4 hits Verizon on February 10th, along with BOGO RAZRs
- Instagram could hit Android very soon
- Google’s “Bouncer” may not protect us from all Android malware
- Rdio app undergoes a facelift, Android 4.0 support included
- Android Community Evening Wrap-Up: February 6, 2012
- LibreOffice Android port progresses to prototype
- Cowon extends its PMP line with Z2 Plenue
- HTC makes “Studio” design division under CEO
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus in White official: Coming February 13
- Google clarifies CDMA debacle: still supporting developer phones, not publishing AOSP code
- Rumor: Google’s Android-based HUD glasses getting public trials soon
- Andru Android Robot Micro-USB charger and collectible hands-on
- “Android Winning” T-Shirts available now, get the entire collection
| DROID Bionic update rolling out now, here’s the change log Posted: 07 Feb 2012 11:18 AM PST We recently shared some information regarding an upcoming update that was in the testing phase for the Motorola DROID Bionic but today we can happy tell all you Bionic owners that the update is ready and rolling out now. Officially being pushed to the Verizon support page we have all the details and a full change log below.
The update should be hitting devices any time now and you can start by checking for updates right on your device as usual by going into settings > about phone > and checking for updates. The update is about 57 MB in size and should only take a few minutes. The update isn’t anything major like the last one, or bring Ice Cream Sandwich but the change log does give us a few good ideas of what to expect. Looking at the details below we see tons of changes and improvements to stability — something Bionic owners have been plagued with. They’ve also updated battery life, audio and video while streaming over HDMI, fixed some in-call audio interruptions and more. Then they specifically mention not only phone stability, but data stability too. I know from first hand experience the Bionic seems to drop data and for longer periods of time than most of my Verizon 4G LTE devices laying around. As usual a few Verizon apps and bloatware have been added or updates, but that is to be expected. The update is rolling out in stages and should be landing soon. Check out the change log image below for all the details, and be sure to let us know once you get the update how everything goes. I’m interested in those data connection improvements. If you are rooted and are worried about loosing it give OTA RootKepper a try.   Device Info
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| Google Chrome Browser officially lands on Android — faster and smarter Posted: 07 Feb 2012 10:54 AM PST It’s the moment we have all been waiting for. We have long forgotten Firefox and have been die-hard fans of Chrome while waiting patiently for an official mobile version for Android. Today is that day and Google has just announced the Chrome for Android Beta. It’s available now for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones and tablets.
Having a full-out browser built from the ground up for mobile has been the goal for Google and with Chrome for Android they plan to achieve just that. With awesome card view tabbed browsing, impressive multitouch in more places than you’d think, bookmark sync and more this browser really has some huge potential. This is Chrome, but for mobile devices and while it will look familiar with the Omni-bar it still has some fresh new UI tweaks and everything should feel natural. From tabbed management to syncing bookmarks and open pages. It’s all meant to be easy, and fast.
The user interface changes aren’t everything either. It’s also all about speed. The user experience and the feeling of a fast experience has all been improved. From pre-fetching pages, scrolling and zoom speeds, multitouch and more. It’s all much more fluid, simple, and last but not least — fast. Chrome for Android has introduced a new feature called “place shifting”. Users can migrate from their desktop, laptop or Chromebook over to their mobile phone or tablet and everything remains in place. The tabs you have open — including the current tab you were viewing can all be shifted to your mobile device. A seamless and easy user experience. Obviously this is still in beta and was only released today but from our initial impressions it looks like an excellent start and will probably replace the stock ICS browser moving forward. Will later versions of Android come with Chrome instead? We think they will very soon. So far the bump in performance and the tabbed browser really has sealed the deal for me. Being able to drag the different tabs (cards) around and see a preview of each tab is awesome. You can even rearrange the tabs. For now this is only for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices but we have a feeling more will see it soon — either officially or ported by developers. More details are available from the video and market link below.
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| StyleTag app brings out the fashionable side of your Android phone Posted: 07 Feb 2012 09:24 AM PST Believe it or don’t, not every Android users gets all of his or her clothes from the prestigious Sam Walton Collection. (Well, I do, but I know not everyone does.) For those with an eye towards both fashion and social collaboration, StyleTag combines the elements of Flickr’s tagging system, Pinterest’s photo-based social networking and Picasa’s instant uploads. Their free app, “StyleTag: FashionSNS“, has an admirably advanced user interface with tens of thousands of entries for the sartorially obsessed.
The idea is simple enough: create a social network for the fashion conscious, wherein they can snap photos from their phones, upload them and “like” or comment on the results. The brilliant bit comes in the combination of the ubiquitous tags and StyleTag’s unique categorization system. Sure, you can look at the firehose feed in the main wall view of all the entries or just the most popular ones, but if you’re in the mood to find jeans or evening wear, or even items from a particular brand or designer, search by tag. You can save favorite tags or feeds to follow them Twitter-style, or just chat with other registered users. As a method for casually browsing the latest in fashion, the app is an impressive accomplishment – I wish more mainstream software could look this good. Admittedly, the userbase skews overwhelmingly female at the moment; guys won’t find many tips or items of interest. As far as clothing goes, anyway. (Ahem.) Top users are turning in some impressive entries both for clothing and photography, though some is certainly taken with the aid of more than just a smartphone. There are a few holdovers from the iOS app design, like portrait-only orientation and a persistent back button. But over all it’s a beautiful app with a surprising amount of depth, for those with the inclination to peruse its digital aisles. You can download it now in the Android Market – fair warning, it doesn’t seem to like Android tablets at the moment.      
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| Verizon’s double data returns on February 10th Posted: 07 Feb 2012 08:30 AM PST The DROID 4 and buy one, get one free deals on the DROID RAZR aren’t the only thing that’s hitting Verizon Wireless soon. The company has brought back its incredibly popular Double Data Deal, allowing new and recurring customers to get twice the data caps on smartphone data plans starting Friday, February 10th. That means the $30 2GB plan is bumped up to 4GB, the $50 5GB plan goes up to 10GB, and the $80 10GB plan will be 20GB. The plans last for the lifetime of your Verizon account and are equally valid on 4G LTE and 3G, but unfortunately can’t be applied to MiFi-dstyle hotspot devices.
In addition to the double data deal, new smartphone users can trade in their old “feature phones” for $30 credit. If you’re in the market for a 4G LTE tablet, you can get $100 off if you purchase it with any new Verizon phone. Keep in mind that both will require separate data plans – rumors of shared plans for Verizon are, at the moment, just rumors. Verizon didn’t extrapolate on the fine print, but it’s almost certain that this promotion can’t be combined with the buy one get one free RAZR promotion. There’s no word on when these deals will end, but when the original double data deal started in November, it lasted for two months. As nice as it is to see more liberal data limits from a major carrier, it seems like a very motivated move – there’s nothing that indicated a 20GB limit is taxing Verizon’s network, so why do we need a “special” to access it? Why isn’t there an unlimited option (say, for $100 a month) for those of us who truly need it? And why not extend these kindnesses to hotspot users, who really need the breathing room? [via SlashGear]
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| Huawei’s 6.68mm Ascend P1 S gets March launch in China Posted: 07 Feb 2012 07:57 AM PST The last time we saw Huawei’s Ascend P1 S, it was hanging out at CES, looking down on all the “new” smartphones that dared to show up running Gingerbread. Now the Chinese manufacturer has laid down its plans for the super-slim phone’s release, at least on their native soil. Tech.Sina reports that the 6.68mm phone will be heading to mainland China in late March. As Huawei extends its market share across the globe, you can expect this phone to show up in Europe not long after that, and perhaps on US carriers eventually.
The Ascend P1 S crams some very respectable hardware into that tiny frame. A 4.3inch screen, 1.5Ghz dual-core OMAP 4460 processor and 8MP rear camera make it the equal of most of the high-end smartphones on the market today, though the AMOLED screen is “just” 960×540. A 1,800mAh battery is an impressive accomplishment considering the size. While the pre-production models we saw at CES were rocking a barely functional version of Ice Cream Sandwich, Huawei assures its customers that the retail version of the phone will launch with the latest version of Android in a complete state. Like a surprising number of ICS phones, the Ascend P1 S comes with capacitive buttons. Huawei is making big waves in the international market, and they intend to keep doing so. Along with announcements from HTC and Samsung, we’re expecting a new line of high-end phones from Huawei under the “Diamond” label to appear at Mobile World Congress. With any luck, carrier partnerships for the Ascend line will also be announced. [via motoringcrunch]
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| RIM claims BlackBerry apps make more money than Android apps Posted: 07 Feb 2012 06:59 AM PST Oh, RIM. Pity the once-might conquerors of the corporate smartphone world, for they have been reduced to petty sniping while trying to emulate that which they hate. In its latest fit of corporate chest-thumping, the BlackBerry manufacturer has shouted to its European developer conference that apps on the BlackBerry App World are more profitable than their Android counterparts. Citing some numbers from their own analytics (which, to be fair, we’ve got no basis for disputing) CEO Thorsten Heins and other executives claimed that BBAW apps earn 40% more than Android apps, and that 13% of BlackBerry developers have made more than $100,000 dollars. By Android Community’s incredibly unofficial estimates, that’s approximately 13 people.
For a little perspective, remember that Thorsten Heins is the same man who claimed that “All Android phones are the same“, probably while carrying a RIM BlackBerry [generic title] [four-digit number] in his pocket. A week later RIM started literally giving away PlayBooks to any Android developer who ported their apps to the floundering tablet platform, using RIM’s supplied tools to bootstrap and Android environment onto their proprietary software. It might have something to do with the fact that BlackBerry App World has only 60,ooo apps as opposed to Android’s 300,000+, and a tiny fraction of those are made for the PlayBook. RIM claims 6 million app downloads every day. Since we know that at least one billion apps were downloaded from the Android Market in a six-week period from December to January, we can estimate that around 23 million apps are being downloaded from the Market every day. But fear not, gentle reader: RIM will not go quietly into that good night. They’ve committed to remaining true to their own software and platform, and are in no way, shape or form considering switching to Android. Despite building a tablet that seems tailor-made for running Android apps, and doing a little too much protesting. No RIM, keep BlackBerry on your antiquated hardware and rapidly declining software instead of bringing your business acumen to a vibrant new platform – it’s worked so well for the likes of Palm and Nokia, after all. [via The Verge]
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| Toshiba AT200 Excite tablet goes on sale in the UK Posted: 07 Feb 2012 05:57 AM PST OK, so Toshiba’s initial Thrive tablet wasn’t a world-shattering piece of technological or stylistic innovation. But those of you looking for a stylish entry in the tablet market have one more option today – at least if you live in the United Kingdom. The Toshiba AT200, alternately known as the Excite X10, is now on sale starting at £399 for the 16GB model and an extra fifty quid for the 32GB version. At 7.7mm thin and weighing just 1.2 pounds, the AT200 is one of the thinnest and lightest 10-inch tablets on the market today. You can pick one up from Carphone Warehouse now, and they should start appearing in retail channels sometime next week.
Aside from an admittedly beautiful exterior, the AT200 has some fairly pedestrian specifications. A 1.2Ghz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor and 1GB of memory make it roughly the equal of the DROID XYBOARD (XOOM 2) models as far as power goes. A 10.1-inch LCD screen operates at the3 standard 1280×800 resolution, while the rear 5MP and front 1.2MP cameras handle shooting duties. Sadly, Honeycomb 3.2 is all you’re getting for software, and Toshiba hasn’t said anything about an Ice Cream Sandwich update just yet. We got a look at some non-final AT200/Excite hardware at Toshiba’s CES press event, and make no mistake, it’s stunning. If you want to turn heads with brushed aluminum (sorry UK readers, I meant to say aluminium) style, this is certainly the tablet with which to do it. But at £399, over $630 USD, there are better both currently available and on the horizon. It’s a marked improvement over Toshiba’s first tablet, but the company seems to be making the same mistakes: pricing it to compete with the iPad instead of low cost off-brand Android tablets, where most of the growth in the tablet market is coming from.    [via The Verge]
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| Motorola DROID 4 hits Verizon on February 10th, along with BOGO RAZRs Posted: 07 Feb 2012 05:23 AM PST After literally months of delays, Verizon is finally getting the high-end QWERTY LTE phone it’s been lacking for so long. The latest batch of rumors turned out to be fairly accurate, and you can pick up the Motorola DROID 4 this Friday, February 10th. The cost will be $199.99 as expected, naturally including a two-year contract or extension. Rumored for most of the 4th quarter of 2011 and only officially verified at CES in January, the DROID 4 has been one of Verizon and Motorola’s most protracted phones since the DROID BIONIC.
If you’ve seen a DROID RAZR, imagine it with a slightly smaller screen, then add a sliding QWERTY keyboard. That’s basically it. Aside from the keyboard, the biggest departure from the RAZR design is the 4-inch qHD LCD (not AMOLED) screen, and the fact that the battery is removable. The same respectable components are present: 1.2Ghz dual-core processor, 16GB of storage space, an 8MP camera and Motorola’s customized Gingerbread software. The tough construction and tapered styling of the RAZR and DROID XYBOARD tablets remains intact. Alas, so does the locked bootloader. The DROID 4 won’t be the only thing debuting on Friday: Verizon is also pulling the veil off of a new buy one, get one free deal for its RAZR phones. That includes the original Motorola DROID RAZR, the white and purple variants introduced a few weeks ago, and the brand new DROID RAZR MAXX with the slightly larger size and nearly double battery capacity. Pairs of DROID RAZRs without an SD card can be had for $199.99 on contract, while the models with a free 16GB MicroSD card and the RAZR MAXX are still $299.99. Taking advantage of the BOGO deal requires a second existing or activated account.
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| Instagram could hit Android very soon Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:13 PM PST There’s no doubt developers have caught on that making their application(s) Android compatible opens up doors of revenue and mass exposure. However, there are a couple popular applications that haven’t quite made it over yet – and of them Instagram is sought after by many. We’ve known about their plans to make it Android compatible for quite some time, but how much longer will we have to wait?
Instagram may be hitting Android soon, and from the snapshot below I’d say very soon. This message popped up on a member’s Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 over at InFlexWeTrust. However, when he went to download the file, the Android Market link was broken. Could we really be seeing two great iOS apps converted to Android in the same month? The highly anticipated game Temple Run should launch on Android shorty as well.
In many cases, Instagram is one of the few apps that can actually sway a person to purchase an iPhone over Android. Sure there are alternatives like PicPlz and Snapbucket – but they’re not Instagram. Application software is becoming universally compatible at such a rapid rate, it will be soon be a hardware game alone for manufactures. Keep your eyes peeled in the Android Market, and let us know right when you spot it! [via AndroidGuys]
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| Google’s “Bouncer” may not protect us from all Android malware Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:06 PM PST We’re not going to lie, when Google introduced its “Bouncer” solution to the malware problem evident in the Android Market – it was comforting to know they would take antivirus protection into their own hands. Well, it seems that may not make a lick of difference for some rare cases. Professor Xuxian Jiang at North Carolina State University have recently found a new form of malware threatening Android’s security.
It’s completely undetectable to current antivirus programs, and still causes just as much havoc. They’ve codnamed it ‘Rootsmart’, and it downloads code from a remote server without any way of knowing it’s running in the background. This downloaded code is then used to compromise your text messages, phone calls, and even data usage. If Google Bouncer or any other antivirus doesn’t detect a virus, then there’s just no way to tell it’s there to the untrained eye. There is however a way to prevent encountering this malicious software. Don’t go downloading illegal ‘cracked’ versions of applications from mass sharing sites, and make sure what you are downloading is legit through conducting a little background research. It’s terrible to be a victim of identity theft, so do what you can to prevent it from happening. [via Forbes]
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| Rdio app undergoes a facelift, Android 4.0 support included Posted: 06 Feb 2012 08:47 PM PST Those of you who were Rdio users prior to purchasing a Samsung Galaxy Nexus were probably wondering when it would be updated to Android 4.0. It is now perfectly compatible, and even underwent a much welcomed UI transformation. Like other music streaming apps, Rdio offers an great collection of over 12 million songs that can be instantly streamed to any Android device.
Just like Spotify and Grooveshark, songs can be cached for offline playback. It’s hard to decide which one to subscribe to – as all offer access to so many songs. But more likely than not, you’ve already taken a liking to one prior to reading this. And there, you’ve made your playlists and populated your music library through your personal account.
So why would you jump services if all offer the same features? You wouldn’t. And that’s why survival and growth completely depends on future device compatibility. As long as Rdio, Spotify, Grooveshark, and many others continue to support the latest firmware and devices – they’ll be able to retain there subscribers. [via MobileBurn]
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| Android Community Evening Wrap-Up: February 6, 2012 Posted: 06 Feb 2012 07:15 PM PST We had quite a few stories today, and the most interesting may well be the rumor of some Android-based HUD glasses from Google. There have been rumors suggesting a secret project is in the works to bring some augmented reality glasses to public testing soon. It will apparently only be for one eye, and on the side. Unfortunately, it’s not likely they will be see through – so don’t plan on becoming a ‘terminator’ quite yet.
Verizon’s Samsung Galaxy Nexus had an update to 4.0.4 leak today, and it has proved to improve users’ signals in just about every way. It hasn’t officially rolled out yet, but isn’t difficult at all to install. Find out more information on how to upgrade here. Have you checked Facebook lately on your Android smartphone or tablet? The official Facebook app should see mobile ads incorporated starting in March, so enjoy your ad-free application while you can! Adding inline ads could potentially boost their revenue to unheard-of amounts. There’s no doubt you’ve accidentally tapped one of those ads while navigating through countless other applications. And we were also graced with another Samsung Galaxy S III rumor – one that suggests it will be 7mm thin! So now we’ve got a 7mm, waterproof, 12MP camera, and full-touchscreen display that spans . At this point it’s hard to imagine an area of improvement for the device.
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| LibreOffice Android port progresses to prototype Posted: 06 Feb 2012 06:18 PM PST A few months ago we brought you news that LibreOffice, the open source offshoot of popular free office suite Open Office, was headed to Android. While it would be wrong to say that the team of developers is making rapid progress, progress is nonetheless being made. The prototype app for Android tablets (Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich) was recently shown off in a single screenshot. Without passing too much judgement this early in development, I can say this: for those frustrated with the relatively sparse feature-sets of mobile office suites like Google Docs, it’ll be well worth the wait.
LibreOffice is published by a series of volunteer developers called The Document Foundation. The team is mostly former members of the Open Office project who left when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, who had previously funded Open Office. With more than 8 million downloads in 2011 alone, it’s fast become one of the favorite free office suites for desktops, and is included by default in many Linux distributions. In addition to Android and iOS versions, The Document Foundation hopes to create online editions of the various application in LibreOffice using HTML 5. LibreOffice includes all the basics of an office suite: a Word-style document manager, spreadsheet program, presentation program (PowerPoint-style), database manager, vector tool and formula editor. It’s not clear which of these programs will make it to the Android port, though the first three would seem to be a given. There’s clearly a lot of work that needs to be done (especially to create a powerful yet touch-friendly interface) but the project remains an exciting one for work-focused Android users. [via ArsTechnica]
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| Cowon extends its PMP line with Z2 Plenue Posted: 06 Feb 2012 05:47 PM PST Believe it or don’t, there’s still plenty of people out there who just want a little flexible media playing in their mobile device, and at least six or seven of them haven’t already bought an iPod Touch. For that market, Cowon makes some stylish and acoustically sound products, which they’ve lately been loading with Android. The latest is the Z2 Plenue, and no, we don’t know what “Plenue” means, either. The device is on sale in South Korea now, but probably won’t make it outside of Asia for a few months at the very least.
With a 1Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM, not to mention a 3.7-inch 800×480 OLED display, the Z2 Plenue is the equal of the original Nexus One and HTC Incredible, at least as far as power and visibility goes. Storage options range from 8GB all the way to 32GB, with the extra trick of being NTFS-formatted, so files larger than 4GB (like, say, HD video rips) can fit on the device’s storage without issue. If even that isn’t enough, you can augment it with the open MicroSD card slot. Connection options include the basic Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and you get an FM tuner to sweeten the deal. While three capacitive navigation buttons are shown, so is a pretty heavily modified Android skin, to the point that it’s impossible to tell which version of Android is running underneath it. Based on the promo photo there appears to be some kind of proprietary app store that’s definitely not the Android Market. If you’re interested and you’re in Korea, you can pick up a Cowon Z2 Plenue for $200-300 in local currency, depending on storage capacity. [via Geeky Gadgets]
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| HTC makes “Studio” design division under CEO Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:53 PM PST HTC doesn’t look so hot at the moment, at least from a financial point of view. But that doesn’t mean they’re resting on their laurels. The Taiwanese manufacturer announced a new department, code-named “Studio”, which will report directly to CEO Peter Chou. The Studio division (which probably isn’t its final name) will be compromised of leading designers and engineers, with the purpose of overcoming some of the company’s identified shortcomings in its 2011 devices.
Two design aspects in particular that they identified as needing revision are thinness of phones’ profiles and the relationship between LTE connections and battery drain. Anyone who’s owned an HTC ThunderBolt can identify with these problems, and its successors the Rezound and Vivid aren’t all that much better. All this is compounded by smaller and for the most part better phones from HTC’s primary competitors: the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE (AKA the Skyrocket on AT&T) and the Motorola DROID RAZR. HTC’s obviously working fast, as the much-leaked HTC Ville headed to Mobile World Congress is already shaping up to be a thin, powerful phone. Also of note in their conference call was a hint towards a more “open-minded” attitude when it comes to selecting components. The HTC representative specifically mentioned CPUs in this context. Considering the Ville’s supposed launch partner, the HTC Edge, that makes a lot of sense: the Edge will probably be the first smartphone to use an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, as opposed to HTC’s usual Qualcomm SoC’s. Both devices are expected to make an appearance at HTC’s pre-Mobile World Congress event in late February. [via Unwired View]
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| Samsung Galaxy Nexus in White official: Coming February 13 Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:37 PM PST We knew it was coming but today Samsung made it official. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus in white is real, and coming soon. It will be available starting on February 13th and will be identical to the regular model — only white as snow. Sadly it being available so late it has missed the snow for many markets, but then that depends on where you live.
Like mentioned above, the white edition will be on sale starting February 13th in locations throughout the UK, and we can expect more to follow shortly. No US carriers have announced any plans yet but most likely we’ll see it hit some 3rd party retailers like Amazon, RadioShack and others eventually — only the GSM version. We first saw some pre-orders followed by officially leaked pictures but today Samsung has officially confirmed the handset. Since these are GSM and unlocked Samsung will be offering them for a pretty penny, but you’ll be able to choose from the 16GB and the 32GB models. Samsung themselves didn’t offer any official pricing but being unlocked they probably wont be too cheap. Do you want a white Galaxy Nexus? Device Info
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[via SlashGear]
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| Google clarifies CDMA debacle: still supporting developer phones, not publishing AOSP code Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:30 PM PST After a firestorm of controversy late last week, Google, Verizon and a lot of others caught flack for apparently abandoning support of the CDMA flavors of its developer devices: the Galaxy Nexus and Motorola XOOM on Verizon, as well as the older Nexus S 4G. After the devices disappeared from the listings on the Android.com developer portal. The only thing remaining for any CDMA device is the early builds for the Galaxy Nexus, and those are marked as “for reference only”. This led to speculation that Google had halted support for said devices, and in a way, they have.
Google will no longer publish the updated system software images for the three devices, because connecting to a CDMA network requires digital files and programs signed by the operator of that network, which can’t be open-sourced. Technically, this means that the entire ROM can’t be called “open source”, and therefore doesn’t belong on AOSP (Android Open Source Project). However, Google has updated its initial statement on Google Groups, reassuring device owners that they will continue to support the software even though it isn’t being posted to the AOSP repository. Here’s their second statement in full (emphasis added):
So what it boils down to is this: Google either had some sort of agreement with the owners of the copyrighted code in the CDMA portions of the Android software images, or the owners either didn’t know or didn’t care about its distribution. Apparently, that’s no longer the case. Google has lost the right to distribute this code, or never had it in the first place and it’s now being enforced. GSM and WiFi operate on a collection of open standards, so this isn’t a problem for other phones like the standard models of the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S or the WiFi-only XOOM.
Google claims that they will continue to support CDMA phones to the best of their abilities, particularly when it comes to the binaries that developers need. They also hope to restore CDMA support to the Android Open Source Project at some point. This still leaves Android users with two questions: one, does this limited support include software updates directly from Google, or must the CDMA devices get them after the carriers and manufacturers have added their copyrighted code? If users can’t download the latest software from Google, how could they get it any other way? And two: why the sudden change in policy? Why is this CDMA restriction in the open source code being enforced now, almost a year after the XOOM became the first developer device on a CDMA network? At this point, Google isn’t being particularly chatty on either subject. Remember that Nexus and developer devices have always come with, and will continue to come with, unlockable bootloaders. The impact that this move has on custom ROMs for Nexus phones and the XOOM is almost zero. Even so, this change sets a worrying precedent for anyone who wants to use a developer device on the CDMA network of their choice. Device Info
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| Rumor: Google’s Android-based HUD glasses getting public trials soon Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:54 PM PST We heard rumblings about a secret project deep within the bowels of Google back in December: that the company’s skunkworks division, known as “Google X”, was working on a heads-up display technology that runs on Android. Now 9to5Google is claiming more insider information, most importantly that the augmented reality glasses will be seeing a public testing soon, in the same fashion that the CR-48 Chrome laptop was distributed in early 2011. The source claims that Google is still ironing out the details, but whatever the company does, it’ll be “soon”.
The Google Glasses cram a surprising amount of tech into a small package, that reportedly bears a strong resemblance to Oakley’s Thump MP3 sunglasses from way back in 2004. Unlike the more scifi-inspired designs of TV and movies, the HUD screen is only on one lens, and isn’t transparent – it’s more like IBM’s designs for wearable computers from decades ago. A tiny camera and flash allow for augmented reality, as well as regular photos and presumably videos. The user interface navigates by a head-turning motion for scrolling and clicking. The miniaturized computer hardware is apparently equal to an Androied phone from about a year ago, and yes, it can make calls. If this all seems a bit out there, remember two things: this couldn’t be less official if it was hand-delivered to us by a leprechaun, and Google loves to try crazy stuff. Their driverless car program is one of the best in the world, and while it doesn’t necessarily have much to do with their core business, neither did Android when they purchased it over four years ago. If the above information is accurate, and it turns out that Google really is interested in pursuing this as a possible consumer product, we’d throw out our Ray-Bans and be the first in line to try it. Now pardon me: I have to go re-read Daniel Suarez’s Daemon.
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| Andru Android Robot Micro-USB charger and collectible hands-on Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:50 PM PST Meet ANDRU. This little Android robot collectible powered by a new company called Gen can sit at your desk as you show off your love for Android with the included stand, then transform and charge your phone at the same time. Already an iconic image — the Android robot mascot now doubles as your charger. We were lucky enough to get one for a quick hands-on video and a few pictures so check it out.
There really isn’t much to say here other than this little charger is awesome. If you love Android gear this is for you. It’s a charger that will power all Android smartphones with micro-USB and it can also sit and look pretty on you desk at home, or work. Being only 2.5″ it is small and lightweight. ANDRU is made out of a soft matte covered rubber and is soft to the touch. The robot antenna’s are always a worry for many. Here they’re made from rubber that bends, and wont break like many other collectibles.
The stand easily pulls off, but clicks into place so you wont have to worry about it falling or getting lost. Andy’s eyes glow white once plugged into the outlet in standby mode, then glow blue while charging. It isn’t anything revolutionary and wont magically charge your device cable free — but it is neat, fun, and can be yours for only $25 — available today. ANDRU USB Charger hands-on    
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| “Android Winning” T-Shirts available now, get the entire collection Posted: 06 Feb 2012 01:03 PM PST Who is ready to show their Android pride and spirit? Our favorite T-shirt maker is back with another Android themed shirt to go along with his awesome collection. From King Kong Andy to Dark Knight Andy and more. The new shirt available now is a follow up to the popular “Andy Versus” shirt released last year.
Whether you just love rocking the Android logo, or need another shirt to show off to friends we have you covered. I think King Kong Andy is still my favorite shirt of the entire collection but this latest version “Android Winning” is a close second. All the shirts are available from the links below. As always these awesome shirts will run you just $17 a piece but are printed on high quality and comfortable American Apparel cotton tee’s. They have all sizes and even offer shirts for both men and women. Hit all the links below to see pictures of each version from the Andy collection. Be sure to buy them all and support this awesome Android fan and creative artist.
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