Android Community |
- Blue DROID RAZR shown off in promo video
- Samsung and Google working on mystery Nexus device
- SellAring in-call advertising has users seeing red
- Galaxy S III cover, dock and stylus get fondled on video
- Straight Talk’s Galaxy Proclaim looks like a mini-Nexus
- Official: T-Mobile Sensation 4G ICS update coming May 16th
- DROID RAZR MAXX drops to $199 on-contract
- Verizon Galaxy S III spotted again in benchmark
- Real Colors generates palettes from your photos
- Early Galaxy S III test shows impressive battery life
- HTC Desire C photos and specs leak
- Android Community Weekly: May 13th, 2012
| Blue DROID RAZR shown off in promo video Posted: 14 May 2012 10:57 AM PDT For all those Motorola DROID RAZR fans that weren’t pleased with the black, white, or purple color options Motorola has just added blue to the mix. We heard reports on a blue RAZR coming soon, then Verizon announced the new flavor last week. Today we have their just released promo video for those wanting to see it in the flesh.
While nothing about the DROID RAZR is new here, the folks at PocketDroid.net found the new promo video below showing off the curves, Kevlar, and blue colors of the RAZR. If you’re considering the color this will give you a better idea of what to expect. The RAZR will still be the same 4.3-inch device running Android 2.3 Gingerbread — with ICS coming soon — running on Verizon’s 4G LTE network and having a powerful dual-core processor under the hood. The new blue RAZR is available in select stores now, and will be available nationwide starting May 17th. Check out our previous reviews, coverage, and Ice Cream Sandwich leaks from the timeline below.    Device Info
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| Samsung and Google working on mystery Nexus device Posted: 14 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT Now that the Galaxy S III has finally been unveiled and Verizon models are starting to leak in benchmarks it’s time to whip out the rumor mills for the next big thing. What might that be? A mystery phone or tablet, possibly the next Google Nexus device being jointly worked on by Google and Samsung — again.
What we have below are some interesting bits of information about an upcoming device from Samsung that appears to be getting some serious attention from Google. Being worked on and updated by Google right on Google’s own git repository, and mirrored to their AOSP tree too. Now it’s been strongly suggested the Google Nexus Tablet would be an ASUS device, and that could still be true. At the same time Samsung could have stole the thunder (like they’ve done with the past few Nexus devices) because this evidence is all stacking up to Samsung and Google working closely together on another device. What we aren’t sure of yet, is whether this is a smartphone or a tablet. From looking over and digging through the kernel commits, the device they’re working on together features Samsung’s Exynos 5250 dual-core Cortex-A15 processor, with Mali T-604 graphics clocked at up to 533mhz (codenamed vithar). For reference, the Mali 400 found in their Galaxy S II’s Exynos 4210 is clocked at 266mhz while the Galaxy S III and Exynos 4412 has the same Mali 400, just clocked higher. That old GPU manages to beat almost everything else currently available in terms of graphics. From HTC’s Snapdragon to Apple’s iPhone 4S. Basically this new chip should be a beast. Some of the other specs along with the Mali T-604 and Exynos 5250 are a 1280 x 800 resolution Samsung Super AMOLED display. That could be a tablet, but also a 4.8-5.3-inch smartphone as the Galaxy Note is 1280 x 800, but the Nexus is 1280 x 720. There is mention of a 5 megapixel s5k4e5 camera, wm8994 sound soc (SGSII and others) and aS6E8AB0 display with the above mentioned resolution. Given the dual-core 5250 processor, 1280 x 800 resolution, and only a 5 megapixel camera most likely this is some sort of Android tablet — possibly the Google Nexus Tablet we’ve been hearing rumors about. Maybe we’ll see this in June during Google I/O so stay tuned and feel free to add any thoughts if you notice anything in the kernel source. [via Kernel tree] — Thanks Rawat
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| SellAring in-call advertising has users seeing red Posted: 14 May 2012 10:14 AM PDT Advertising is an unfortunately necessary part of life – and I say that as a guy whose livelihood depends upon it. But there’s a fine line between an acceptable level of distraction and an infuriating invasion of a user’s space. Case in point: sellAring. Instead of placing banner ads in free apps or even embedding them in the user’s status bar, sellAring places audio ads (remember those, radio listeners?) over the “ring ring” sound you hear when calling another party.
The Android Reddit is up in arms, with hundreds of comments containing the predictable bile. Their two-minute Powerpoint-class YouTube spot aimed at free app developers has an astounding three likes to 188 dislikes – a ratio rarely seen even on the vitriolic cesspool of YouTube commenters. The video itself isn’t exactly evil, but it does paint Android users as targets for marketing and not customers. The main selling points are more engagement while a user waits for a call and the fact that ads play even when users aren’t actively using the app, though hopefully they disappear once it’s uninstalled. SellARing claims that they already have advertising agreements with clients like NBC, FOX and Wal-Mart, and that their SDK is easy to integrate into existing apps. Full marks for creativity guys, but this kind of intrusive advertising is not the way to win users. We’d have a hard time recommending any app that used this particular service, even if it unlocked your bootloader and downloaded more RAM. This Android Community post is brought to you by the great taste of Charleston Chew®! [via Android Police]
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| Galaxy S III cover, dock and stylus get fondled on video Posted: 14 May 2012 09:46 AM PDT Just like all of its recent releases, Samsung is blessing the Galaxy S III with a bevy of accessories. UK retailer MobileFun got a hold of the flip cover, stand and spare battery charger and the official S-Pen for the new model. They don’t actually have the phone themselves and the accessories aren’t up for sale yet – they’ll probably have to wait for the May 30th release date for that. At least some of these should be coming to other markets including North America.
The flip cover is basically the same as the one for the Note, replacing the battery cover and adding a plastic screen cover that flips out to the left side. It looks about as sturdy as the standard battery cover that we saw at Samsung’s London event. The operation is pretty similar to the covers on the old Palm Pilot models. The S-Pen operates in the same manner as the stylus for the Galaxy Note, but doesn’t have a dedicated slot in the phone’s housing, so it’s sized like a regular pen. The stand and spare battery charge works exactly like the same gadget for the Galaxy Nexus. Plug your phone into the charge and a spare battery into the covered bay at the back, and you’re good to go. We don’t know when these accessories will be available, but we do know that the Touchstone-style wireless charging kit won’t be ready until late summer at the earliest. Device Info
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| Straight Talk’s Galaxy Proclaim looks like a mini-Nexus Posted: 14 May 2012 09:10 AM PDT We’re pleased to see that the selection of Android phones on budget and pre-paid carriers like Straight Talk is expanding. Their latest offering is the Samsung Galaxy Proclaim, set to begin selling within the next few weeks. The $179.99 phone fits squarely into the mid range, and unlike some of Straight Talk’s phones will rely on Verizon’s CDMA network for coverage and data.
The Proclaim comes with a 1Ghz single-core processor, 3.5-inch 480×320 screen (panel technology isn’t mentioned), a 3-megapixel rear camera and, of course, Gingerbread with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. On-board storage isn’t currently known, though the phone will come with a 2GB MicroSD card. The styling of the phone is interesting: in shape and layout it looks remarkably similar to the Nexus S, though the very slight curve of the screen probably has more to do with the bezel than the glass. Straight Talk’s plans and services are a little confusing, thanks to their TracFone legacy. Most of the phones that they sell, and any of the devices using their unlocked SIM cards, use AT&T’s 3G network. A few of the older phones, and now the Galaxy Proclaim, rely on the Verizon network instead. Plans on Straight Talk are $5 a month for 1000 minutes and texts and a paltry 30MB of data, and $60 a month for unlimited everything. [via UnwiredView]
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| Official: T-Mobile Sensation 4G ICS update coming May 16th Posted: 14 May 2012 08:30 AM PDT T-Mobile’s been pretty sparing when it comes to firm news on Ice Cream Sandwich updates, but their streak of silence ends today. The carrier announced that it intends to update the HTC Sensation 4G to Android 4.0 on May 16th, just two days from now. They also stated that the newer Amaze 4G would be getting its own update “in the coming weeks”. We’d previously heard that it was scheduled for mid-June.
As with other Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades to HTC phones, the Sensation will get Sense 3.6 along with Android 4.0, instead of the newer Sense 4.0. To get that (along with Beats Audio, presumably) you’ll need to shell out for T-Mobile’s version of the One S. Upgrades will be sent out over-the-air and probably in stages, so come Wednesday check the About Phone section of your Sensation’s settings menu to see if you can pull it down. Those without patience have probably already rooted their phones and flashed a custom Ice Cream Sandwich ROM, but many have also tried a branded ROM ported from the One X. No doubt that once the official ROM becomes available, there will be plenty of mods based on it soon after. Then again, those who are due for an upgrade might just want to wait: the Sensation 4G recently dropped to free on-contract, a possible indication that Samsung’s Galaxy S III is on the way. Device Info
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[via The Verge]
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| DROID RAZR MAXX drops to $199 on-contract Posted: 14 May 2012 07:57 AM PDT Though it’s far from perfect, the DROID RAZR MAXX currently sits pretty high on Android Community’s list of favorite devices. (I’m carrying one as my daily driver – what higher praise can I give?) Though the phone and its gigantic battery had stayed at the $299 mark even as the original DROID RAZR dropped to a C-Note, it appears that Verizon has officially reduced the price to $199.99 today. Naturally you’ll need to sign a new two-year contract to qualify.
The DROID RAZR MAXX is nearly identical to Motorola’s DROID RAZR, save for an extra couple of millimeters on the body to accommodate a massive 3300mAh battery. This impressive engineering gave the DROID RAZR MAXX a run-time of nearly three full days in our business trip torture test. Those of you outside the US will be getting a GSM version soon, with some European and Middle Eastern countries seeing the RAZR MAXX later this month. We’re still pretty upset that Motorola’s Verizon handsets continue to come with a locked bootloader, but for those who want incredible battery life without the bulge, the DROID RAZR MAXX is where it’s at. We can hope (but certainly not confirm) that the price cut points to a release of the DROID RAZR HD, with a similar battery but a larger and denser screen. For those of you who are already Verizon customers, note that the renewal price is $169.99, neatly accommodating for the (admittedly ridiculous) $30 upgrade fee. Device Info
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[via Droid-Life]
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| Verizon Galaxy S III spotted again in benchmark Posted: 14 May 2012 07:29 AM PDT Samsung’s still playing hard to get with American versions of the Galaxy S III, but a pre-announcement leak of a user agent profile gave us a pretty good indication that the phone is headed for Verizon eventually. Add this little bit of evidence to the pile: Recombu spotted a Verizon-branded Galaxy S III in the NenaMark database, complete with the same SGH-I535 model number seen in the previous leak. As expected, this version of the phone uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor instead of Samsung’s own quad-core Exynos.
The results are impressive, with frames-per-second in the graphics-based test hanging around the same high-50s mark that we saw on AT&T’s HTC One X (also with a Snapdragon processor). The GPU tested in this unit is the Adreno 255, again, the same silicon inside the LTE version of the One X. The top end of the test had the phone running at a smashing 60.3 frames per second, something that’ll be hard to match for other phones. For all intents and purposes the American versions of the Galaxy S III should be identical to the international version, except in the areas of processor, radio and whatever software customization US carriers insist upon. That last point is a significant one – just ask any AT&T customer eager to mod the One X with a locked bootloader. Timing can’t be guessed at the moment, though Samsung thinks that its flagship will reach American shores in late summer. Keep your fingers crossed. Device Info
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| Real Colors generates palettes from your photos Posted: 14 May 2012 07:05 AM PDT If you’re a graphic designer or a web developer, you know the importance of having a harmonious color scheme on your next project. There are plenty of programs, services and web apps that will generate an eye-pleasing palette for you, but they’re almost all drawing from pre-created sets of colors. Real Colors Pro is an Android app that’s well worth the consideration for any creative professional, not just because it moves this functionality to a stand-alone mobile app, but because it adds a few new bells and whistles as well.
Chief among these is the ability to automatically generate a color palette from a photo that you take with your phone. So if you’re out and about in New Orleans and you see a fetching mural for the Saints, you can snap a photo and get the distinctive gold/black/white color without having to hunt down a branding guide. It’s not just a gimmick, either: you can create palettes along the major divisions of color theory, complementary, monochromatic, analogous, shades, triad, tetrad and split complementary. Other functions include exporting to RGB, HSB and HEX, not to mention swapping palettes with your friends on Facebook. Those just looking for some UI bling can adapt their palettes into Android wallpapers. The full version is a hefty $4.99 USD, but those who need professional tools probably won’t bat an eye. The Lite version is free, but does without the various theoretical variations and wallpaper.
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| Early Galaxy S III test shows impressive battery life Posted: 14 May 2012 06:29 AM PDT You may recall our short editorial on the one thing the Galaxy S III needs to truly shine, that being a better battery life than similarly high-end devices. A screenshot from Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin shows just that: the new Samsung flagship his clocked at just over 20 hours of run time with 42% battery left. The battery on the Galaxy S III is 2100mAh, about 15-20% larger than most high-end Android phones.
Murtazin testifies that he’s used the phone for five hours of music, a dozen photos and one video, but there’s something that casts doubt on the impressive stat. He also said that he’d used it for only an hour on the cellular network, with the rest of his time presumably spent on local WiFi. (Note the WiFi and Airplane Mode icons in the status bar.) That skews these results somewhat. Samsung phones tend to get average to good battery life, with the notable exception of Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus LTE variant. The Galaxy S III is set to release in Europe on May 29th, followed shortly by a UK release on the 30th. It will be sold in its HSPA+ version unlocked and via most major carriers. There’s no confirmed carrier for the United States just yet, but compelling evidence for Verizon and at least a suspicion of AT&T and T-Mobile versions are present. Samsung says that the Galaxy S III will be coming to North America later this summer. Device Info
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| HTC Desire C photos and specs leak Posted: 14 May 2012 04:00 AM PDT An official PR shot of the HTC Desire C has shown up online. Along with that photo come some tips on the specs for the smartphone as well. The image you see here was leaked by Vodafone’s Portuguese PR team by including it in May catalog for the official announcement of the smartphone. The smartphone actually runs Android and is expected to be a lower-end device.
The Desire C has a 3.5-inch screen with a resolution of 320 x 480. It uses a 600 MHz processor and is apparently being marketed as a 3.5 G device, presumably meaning HSDPA. Internal storage is 4 GB, and the phone has a five megapixel camera. The phone will run Android 4.0. Another leaked photo of the same smartphone turned up that shows the device in the wild rather than in a staged PR shot.
The smartphone was previously known by the codename HTC Golf and HTC Wildfire C. The smartphone is expected to launch at the end of June and will presumably carry a budget price in line with its lower-end hardware. [via Recombu]
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| Android Community Weekly: May 13th, 2012 Posted: 13 May 2012 09:11 PM PDT It’s been a big week in the Android world, mostly due to the CTIA wireless show in New Orleans. Naturally Android Community was there to cover it, and you can see all of our CTIA stories here. For a lighter look at the more important bits, check out our CTIA wrapup. Oh, and don’t forget to enter our latest giveaway to celebrate the anniversary of NVIDIA’s Tegra Zone. There was plenty of other stuff to catch your attention as well, so without further ado, let’s get going.
As far as hardware goes, there’s a ton of stuff to sift through in the CTIA sections above, but the biggest for US consumers is probably the official announcement of the HTC DROID Incredible 4G LTE for Verizon. Check out our hands-on here. And those of you who were waiting for a One series Verizon phone (like the new One X on AT&T) had best stop waiting. Kyocera showed off a couple of new ICS phones, the Rise and the Hydro. LG’s latest flagship, the LS970 “Eclipse 4G LTE” was leaked, and Sony announced the Xperia GX and SX models for Japan. Toshiba’s Tegra 3-powered Excite 10 tablet is now on sale, and AT&T’s Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD won’t be, ever.
On the software side, the international Galaxy Note was officially updated to Ice Cream Sandwich and AT&T’s version got a second leak. Like its other tablets, ASUS updated the Eee Pad Slider to Android 4.0. Popular iOS app Flipboard was supposed to be a Galaxy S III exclusive, but the APK leaked and you can download it now. Facebook laid out plans for its App Center app showcase, on both the web and mobile platforms.
Here on Android Community you’ll definitely want to check out our review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 edition, on sale now. We’ve also got an early review of the HTC EVO 4G LTE, along with a photo tour of New Orleans using its awesome camera. You’ll also want to see our hands-on looks at the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note, along with the Lava XOLO, the first smartphone powered by Intel’s Medfield platform. Finally, check out the new features of our Device.AC database with a video tour. Until next week, stay in school, don’t do drugs and always make a Nandroid backup.
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