Android Community |
- HTC One S units arrive at T-Mobile – launch date impending
- ASUS Transformer Pad 300 set for US release on April 22nd
- Spyware found in Japanese Google Play Store
- AT&T Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE refurbished on sale for $199
- Google Wallet updated with privacy and UI improvements
- HTC One X software mod grants up to 20% better battery
- Rain attacks Android at the Googleplex
- Pantech Element gets root and custom recovery
- Draw Something better with the Galaxy Note’s screen and S-Pen
- HTC Golf image leaks – looks like a mini One X
- Facebook buys TagTile – bringing coupon deals to mobile
- Motorola hardware division sell off by Google is unlikely
- Samsung 7 and 10-inch Espresso tablets coming in June
- Thousand Clocks Gallery is the ultimate widget collection
| HTC One S units arrive at T-Mobile – launch date impending Posted: 14 Apr 2012 10:15 AM PDT The HTC One S is headed to T-Mobile and will be one awesome smartphone for this summer. Sadly they’ve been completely quite regarding any official launch date of the new flagship phone. While we still wait for T-Mobile to confirm a date we are now starting to see dummy units arriving in T-Mobile stores, along with advertisements. April 25th could still be the day.
According to TmoNews multiple stores have received dummy and display units of the One S, along with banners and more for advertisement. Recent rumors have claimed the phone will arrive on April 25th, along with some internal documents stating the same date from T-Mobile themselves. The T-Mobile launch party is set for April 18th where they’ll show the world their T-Mo branded version of the new phone, and most likely announce availability and pricing. So while we still don’t have a clear date, the world will know come the 18th. We still expect the phone to launch inside of April but will have to wait and see. In case you’ve missed any of our reviews and benchmarks of the new One S hit the links below for all the info. Device Info
Display
Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
Software
Hardware
 Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
|
| ASUS Transformer Pad 300 set for US release on April 22nd Posted: 13 Apr 2012 06:16 PM PDT If you’ve been dying to get your hands on some quad-core tablet action but can’t stomach the $499 entry price for the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime, you’re in luck. The slightly lower-end Transformer Pad 300, the replacement model for ASUS’ original Transformer, will hit the United States on Sunday, April 22nd. PC World reports the news from an ASUS spokesperson, who says that pricing won’t be revealed until that date – but international pre-orders indicate that a $399 price to match the original Transformer is likely.
The Transformer Pad 300 keeps most of the specs from the Transformer Prime, but clocks the quad-core Tegra processor down to 1.0Ghz from 1.5. The build is also a little different, going for a completely plastic body instead of the Prime’s metal chassis. You still get a full gigabyte of RAM, a capacity starting at 16GB, a 10-inch 1280×800 screen and a 10-hour battery, which can be extended by slotting in a color-matching keyboard dock (sold separately). ASUS is all in for Ice Cream Sandwich: the Transformer Pad 300 will ship with Android 4.0. The WiFi-only model will use NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 system on a chip platform, but the LTE model (which probably isn’t coming to the US any time soon) defaults to a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4. This is because the Tegra 3 isn’t compatible with LTE data – see AT&T’s version of the HTC One X. Depending upon what you’re doing, that may or may not be a bad thing, as different benchmarks give different results. In any case, we should see the Transformer Pad 300 on store shelves in just a couple of weeks. Who’s getting one now, and who’s waiting for the higher-res 700 model? Device Info
Display
Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
Software
Hardware
Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
|
| Spyware found in Japanese Google Play Store Posted: 13 Apr 2012 05:47 PM PDT Ho boy. It seems that at Android enthusiast can’t get his head down before yet another malware story slides across his writing desk. This time it’s from Japan, where a researcher employed by McCafee found naughty apps in the regional Google Play Store sending private information to a remote server. Carlos Castillo documented his work on McAfee’s website. The apps in question are the usual low-quality, generally useless fare, promising video players, anime and sexual content, which they only deliver after stealing personal information. Good grief, they could at least have the decency to engage in some good-old-fashioned piracy while they’re at it.
So far the researchers have discovered 15 applications from at least two publishers with around 70,000 total downloads that contain the malicious code, all of which have been removed from the Japanese Play Store at this point. The good news is that the researcher was tipped off by sketchy permissions requested by the app, so checking permissions of apps from the Play Store (as many diligent users do) is still a good way to protect yourself. The bad news is that Google’s much-lauded Bouncer protection system seems to have failed, possibly because the apps send the information in plain text. In security terms, it’s the digital equivalent of robbing a 7-11 in broad daylight. Some readers may question McAfee’s objectivity in reporting these apps, and rightly so – a few months ago Symantec was caught calling out apps that, while generally useless and filled with ads, weren’t technically malicious. But Castillo seems to have done his homework – these apps require sending on personal information, without notifying the user, as a condition of their very function. This backs up the much-used credo: never download apps from a developer that you don’t trust. Not even in an official app store. [via Ars Technica]
|
| AT&T Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE refurbished on sale for $199 Posted: 13 Apr 2012 04:54 PM PDT We’re big fans of Samsung’s Goldilocks tablet, the Galaxy Tab 8.9. (Not too big, not too small, just right.) Fans enought that it was one of our top five Android devices of 2011. And while it’s a fine piece of tech in its WiFi-only version, AT&T went a step further and added LTE capability – check out our hands-on. If you’re OK with refurbished hardware, you can pick one up from AT&T’s website right now for just $199.99 on a two-year contract, or $399.99 without. For a Samsung tablet with an always-on data connection, that’s a downright steal.
I’d go with the contract-free option, and here’s why: currently the WiFi-only Galaxy Tab 8.9 retails for around $449.99, though it seems to go on sale pretty often. Save fifty bucks and get the data connection, just in case you want it – if you’ve got an AT&T LTE phone, you can even swap in the SIM card. Of course, AT&T will probably insist that you sign up for a new plan even with the no-commitment pricing, but if you don’t want it you can cancel right away. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 gets all the bells and whistles of the 10.1-inch version (including an identical 1280×800 screen) in a slightly more portable package: the Tegra 2 processor, 16GB of storage, 1GB of memory and Samsung’s TouchWiz-flavored Honeycomb. There’s an update to Ice Cream Sandwich in the works, but thanks to a vibrant modder community, you don’t have to wait for it if you’re wiling to get your hands dirty. My personal WiFi model is running AOKP ICS right now, and aside from missing out on the 3.2MP camera and the front-facing cam, it’s a blast. Device Info
Display
Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
Software
Hardware
Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
|
| Google Wallet updated with privacy and UI improvements Posted: 13 Apr 2012 04:35 PM PDT The venerable folks at Google have just issued another update to Google Wallet. Hopefully this time it won’t cause issues for all of us rooted users either. While Google Wallet is still in its infancy and waiting to really take off, they’ve added tons of enhancements and improvements with today’s update. Read on below for the full changelog and don’t forget to use that $5 Wallet gave us last month.
First off the update mentions UI improvements but I don’t see too many changes to the overall user interface. It does feel smoother and maybe a bit more polished, but nothing major in regards to the UI or design. I’m sure everyone will be fine with more privacy and security and Google mentions that too. The update was just released today but the changelog appears to be the same as the previous update back in March. This time around it specifically mentions privacy enhancements as well as bug fixes. While Google hasn’t listed anything specific regarding what bugs or issues have been resolved, I’m sure some of those random crashes some reported should stop with this update. For now Google Wallet is still incompatible with almost all of my Android devices so until things open up a bit, this will have to do. If you are one of the few able to use Google Wallet, head to the Play Store here to get the latest version. Drop us a comment if you see anything new in the Terms of Service agreements when you fire up the app.  
|
| HTC One X software mod grants up to 20% better battery Posted: 13 Apr 2012 04:03 PM PDT The HTC One X is pretty great, but its 1800mAh battery (not unlike the one on the Galaxy Nexus) is only OK. It turns out that HTC itself made something of an error in judgement when putting together that shiny new software. Due to an errant APK location, the native NVIDIA power control app (you know, the thing that makes that magical “5th core” work to save all that battery life) wasn’t working properly. HTC should have a fix out soon enough, but in the meantime, the fellows at XDA have a fix for you.
It’s a very simple process: all the ADB function does is move a copy of the “NvCPLSvc.apk” into its proper place in the system/app folder, instead of the system/bin folder. Noted Android developer Mike1986 noticed the problem, which should only affect the international version of the HTC One X. You just need the ADB files from the Android SDK to enable the fix – root isn’t even required. If you do have root, you can use an app like Root Explorer to manually move the app yourself. Either way, reboot and you’re ready to go. Users are reporting between 10 and 20% better battery life, which is nothing to sneeze at in a high-powered phone that got about ten hours of active use and 14 hours of on-and-off use in our review. That’s nothing terrible – we’ve seen far worse after all – but it’s also less than we might have hoped for. The excellent standby time of the One X shouldn’t be negatively affected by this mod. If you’re the cautious type, you might want to just wait it out. HTC will probably apply the change themselves in an update sooner rather than later. Device Info
Display
Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
Software
Hardware
Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
[via Engadget]
|
| Rain attacks Android at the Googleplex Posted: 13 Apr 2012 03:40 PM PDT When it rains, it pours. That is exactly what has happened in Mountain View today over at the Googleplex. In case you’ve missed it Google and Android was under attack today from rain, and then the Eclair statue on Google’s front lawn joined in — threatening the Ice Cream Sandwich. I think the folks over at Google are a little bored today on Friday the 13th.
As we all know, with each iteration of Android comes an awesome new statue to peacefully sit out front of building 44 at the Googleplex. We watched them deliver Ice Cream Sandwich to the grass late last year, and Honeycomb before that. What is usually a peaceful and Android love filled front yard turned into murky dangerous waters this morning after heavy rainfall in California. While this isn’t anything too exciting it’s worth a quick laugh or two. Thanks to a few Googlers over at Google+ we have the details and video to share. I think I’d want to ride that giant Eclair too if I were him. In the end thanks to Dan Morrill all the Androids were saved from the watery depths (inches) and no Androids were harmed during the making of this film — except for Eclair of course. Now that we’ve all moved on to the frozen Ice Cream Sandwich the Eclair seems a little on the jealous side and was headed for revenge. That’s all folks. Everything is back to normal at the Googleplex.
|
| Pantech Element gets root and custom recovery Posted: 13 Apr 2012 03:12 PM PDT What’s the use of having a waterproof tablet if you can’t get a little dirty… figuratively speaking, anyway. That seems to be the inspiration behind RootzWiki members attn1 and roman220, who gave the gift of root to AT&T’s Pantech Element tablet just today and immediately installed ClockworkMod recovery to, as it were, boot. The process is fairly simple as root goes: connect the tablet to your computer with ADB enabled, get into the fastboot interface, send over a custom image, then download a SuperUser app and you’re done. Check out the original thread for more precise instructions.
The Element is an Honeycomb tablet for AT&T that’s gained a surprisingly decent following, considering that Pantech still hasn’t made much of a splash (no pun intended) here in the States. The tablet’s claim to fame is its IP57 waterproof rating combined with a 4G LTE connection. The only other tablets that can use AT&T’s growing LTE network are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the iPad From a hardware perspective it’s decent without being extraordinary. The 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and 16GB of internal storage are good, as is the 5-megapixel 1080p camera. The chunky case with a 10-inch 1024×768 4:3 screen, not so good. It also has more add-on software than is strictly necessary – but then, that’s why the people want root! Given the smaller pool of users, the Element might not get an Ice ream Sandwich ROM any time soon, but you can have a whole lot more fun with Honeycomb. Device Info
Display
Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
Software
Hardware
Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
[via Android Police]
|
| Draw Something better with the Galaxy Note’s screen and S-Pen Posted: 13 Apr 2012 02:35 PM PDT We love the Samsung Galaxy Note. Pachyderms named Peter love the Galaxy Note. At last count, about five million of you out there in Internet land love it too. But if you’ve become as enamored as I have with OMGPOP’s Draw Something over the last few weeks, you’ve got at least one more reason to either love or crave the gigantic smartphone: its superior artistic capabilities. As noted in our previous story, it makes a great platform for the Pictionary-style gaming app, thanks to its 5.3-inch screen and built-in digital stylus.
Samsung thinks so too, and they’re spreading the news. In a new video that’s surprisingly sedate, Samsung USA’s Director of Product Marketing Ryan Bidan lets users know exactly how useful the one-two combo of a big screen and pen input is when playing Draw Something. his opponent (who, to be fair, is probably using a Galaxy S II) gives a pre-school rendition of an office building. Ryan chooses a Ringpop as his phrase, and while he’s no Leonardo, manages to blow the door off of his opponent in just a few seconds. Observe: That’s great, Ryan, really great. Now why don’t you let someone with a little more artistic sensibility go after it with that big screen and fancy stylus? Draw Something has 50 million players, many of whom are bonkers for the service. Why not just get the guys from that commercial earlier this year to Draw Something like this? Show them beating the pants out of the game, racking up points left and right, and you’ll get converts left and right from puny 3.5-inch phones from certain fruity manufacturers. Feel free to run with that, Samsung. You’re welcome. [via TheNextWeb]
|
| HTC Golf image leaks – looks like a mini One X Posted: 13 Apr 2012 02:31 PM PDT Well folks, it looks like another HTC phone is in the works after a fresh press shot was leaked this afternoon. We are still enjoying the new HTC One series of phones and thought HTC’s plan for 2012 was “less is more” while they focus on quality, but I guess not. They still plan on churning out plenty of smartphones from the way things appear. More details after the break.
Earlier this year HTC detailed a new Hero strategy where they’d release less phones, and focus more on hardware and software improvements. The HTC One X is a prime example and is an awesome phone. This morning we reported three new phones from HTC headed to China too, then this phone appeared over at Pocket Now, making us question this entire hero plan. According to the leak this will be a very budget friendly device similar to the HTC One V, and will come with Android 4.0 ICS and Sense UI 4.0 on board. We are hearing they could market it as the HTC Wildfire C and have no “One” branding to speak of. It will get a 3.5″ 480 x 320 resolution display, an 800 Mhz single-core processor and 512MB of RAM , then be completed with a 5 megapixel camera and Beats audio integration. The specs look entry-level at its finest but the design and build quality looks similar to the One X and other phones. This could be an awesome budget device and hopefully we hear or see more soon.
|
| Facebook buys TagTile – bringing coupon deals to mobile Posted: 13 Apr 2012 01:51 PM PDT Facebook is back in the news today for throwing around large sums of money. After buying Instagram for a whopping 1 billion dollars today we’ve learned they also snatched up a mobile app company called TagTile. In case you aren’t huge into Facebook, today they launched Facebook Offers — basically coupons and deals they’ll send to your email for free coffee, or other discounts. TagTile will most likely be joining that system.
TagTile is very similar to Google Offers, Groupon, or many other deal apps where you get daily deals and coupons sent to you, only they also offer those loyalty (buy 10 get 1 free) cards at the same time. Using their mobile app on Android or iOS you can track or save your coupons, earn loyalty points and more. While we don’t have any details around how much Facebook paid, or what their plans are we all have a pretty good idea already. Basically with Facebook offers you show the cashier your phone with the deal, and you get a discount or something free, and he might need to scan a code. With TagTile possibly being combined into Facebook Offers the system could become even better. TagTile today confirmed the deal, saying Facebook acquired all of their assets, but that is about all we know at the moment. The TagTile app appears to be fairly new to Android with a low number of installs, but we could see more from them and Facebook both in the future. Get TagTile for Android by clicking here.    [via SlashGear]
|
| Motorola hardware division sell off by Google is unlikely Posted: 13 Apr 2012 12:39 PM PDT The acquisition by Google of Motorola Mobility is still not a done deal, even though it’s approaching the 1 year mark since we first learned of the acquisition. Already we’ve started seeing tons of rumors regarding Google’s plans, and recently reported Google could sell Moto’s hardware division to Huawei. According to new details from DigiTimes that isn’t the case and Google won’t be selling any part of Motorola.
Originally the Wall Street Journal quotes sources saying that Google had offered up Motorola’s huge hardware division to Huawei, since they were mostly interested in IP and patents, but the details are iffy at best. The thought and rumors of Google getting into the hardware business has been a hotly discussed topic ever since they tried to sell the Nexus One themselves. With recent reports that Google will be making and selling a new 7″ Android tablet, possibly called the Google Play Tablet, things are starting to make sense. DigiTimes reports that Taiwan sources claim Google and CEO Larry Page are no where near giving out Moto’s hardware division and at least in the short-term, a sale is unlikely. With Google getting into hardware with Project Glass (and whatever else behind closed doors) and the recent rumors of their upcoming tablet keeping Motorola’s hardware team at their disposal sounds like a great move. If Google intends to get into the hardware business Motorola’s division could play a large role, and help with their aspirations.
|
| Samsung 7 and 10-inch Espresso tablets coming in June Posted: 13 Apr 2012 11:54 AM PDT I don’t know about you guys but I was starting to think Samsung had fulfilled their tablet plans with a release of almost every size you can think of, but apparently not. We’ve just received some tips regarding two upcoming Android tablets codenamed “Espresso” with a 10-inch model coming in June and the 7-inch Espresso variation to follow.
The image above is of Samsung’s current 7.7″ model available now, but if the odd screenshots of data below are accurate it looks like they’ll have another 7 and 10″ model coming this summer. Hopefully these will be coming with some sort of quad-core Exynos processor unlike the recently released Galaxy Tab 2′s with 1.0 GHz dual-cores. We don’t have much regarding details other than the few leaked images provided.
Obviously we clearly see the Samsung Galaxy S III in the slide – showing that its release date is still up in the air, but that could just be a precautionary measure from Samsung as they’ve been plenty secretive about their next-gen phone. The only info that seems to be confirmed is that they have two tablets codenamed “Espresso” in the pipes, and they’ll be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Hopefully once the Galaxy Note 10.1 ships we’ll hear more information on these mystery tablets. Will these be more mainstream priced tablets, or Samsung’s new flagship high-end Galaxy Tabs?    [via Unwired View]
|
| Thousand Clocks Gallery is the ultimate widget collection Posted: 13 Apr 2012 11:12 AM PDT We all love widgets and today I’ve got an awesome app that just landed in the Google Play Store yesterday called Thousand Clocks Gallery. What this gives you access to is literally over a thousand different clock, calendar, weather, and even battery widgets for Android. If Beautiful Widgets is getting old, or you’d like to try something new and fresh this would be a good start.
Thousand Clocks Gallery is actually an app made that uses the huge collection of community and developer built widgets from the site makeyourclock.com and to help get more of the work into the public they’ve released this completely free widget app for Android. It works on both phones and tablets, and gives you tons of options to completely customize your device. Looking through the massive selection of widgets they appear to have some pretty awesome choices. Obviously being built by the community some are of lower quality but for the most part these are excellent widgets that are complete and detailed. You can make your own from the site listed above but if you’d just like to enjoy any of the thousands of widgets hit the link below and give it a try today.   
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Android Community To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment