Android Community

Google’s 7-inch Nexus tablet coming “by the end of June”
Andy Rubin denies leaving Google, brags on Android activations
Android Community Weekly: June 10th, 2012
Verizon and AT&T won’t honor Dropbox 50GB promo for Galaxy S III

Google’s 7-inch Nexus tablet coming “by the end of June”

Posted: 11 Jun 2012 09:23 AM PDT

The rumors just keep flooding in regarding the possible Google Nexus Tablet we’ve all been patiently waiting for. Ever since Google’s then CEO Eric Schmidt teased an official Google slate we’ve all been waiting for one. As rumor has it, the ASUS MeMo 370T 7-inch quad-core tablet from CEO will be the first Nexus tablet and now we have even more rumors.

During Computex 2012 last week it’s being reported that an anonymous company rep apparently confirmed the Nexus tablet to Android Authority, and even went as far as to say it will be here “by the end of June.” Lining right up with previous rumors of a Google I/O debut in about 2 weeks.

Obviously no other details were revealed as they are being tight lipped on the subject, and he actually said unveiled by the end of June, not available. However, we expect retail availability will shortly follow the announcement and it will most likely be available in early to mid July. With NVIDIA’s new KAI budget friendly quad-core processor, a sleek and portable design all under $200 they should have a real winner on their hands. Other rumors suggest Android 4.1 will make an appearance too but we’ll have to wait and see. More details are available at the links below and remember that we’ll be live at Google I/O with all the details come June 27th.

[via SlashGear]

Andy Rubin denies leaving Google, brags on Android activations

Posted: 11 Jun 2012 02:20 AM PDT

A Rumor has been making the rounds the Google’s Andy Rubin was leaving Google to work at a startup called CloudCar. Robert Scoble apparently started the rumor on Google’s own social network, Google+. The rumor pushed Andy Rubin to take to Twitter where he denied he would be leaving the company.

Rubin doesn’t often post tweets, and historically when he does, the tweets are to brag about the number of daily activations for Android devices. Rubin tweeted that Android now has 900,000 device activations per day. Those devices can be any mix of smartphones, tablets, and other devices running Android.

Back in February, the number of Android device activations daily was around 850,000 so Android is continuing to grow. As of March, Android has 51% of the market share in the United States. The iPhone sits at 30.7% of the US market, with RIM clinging to a relatively small 12.3% and Microsoft having only 3.9% of US market.

[via SlashGear]

Android Community Weekly: June 10th, 2012

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:11 PM PDT

The first week or so here in June has turned out to be quite busy. We can almost guarantee it will be followed with a rather busy summer too. From Samsung rocking the US with their announcement of the Galaxy S III being available on 5 major carriers, to images of the highly rumored Google Nexus tablet. There was plenty of news for Android fans so lets dig in.

To start things off right you’ll want to check out our Samsung Galaxy S III review, and while it’s the international version we’ll be seeing plenty of the US models very soon. Samsung controlled most of the headlines for Android this week, so we’ll try to keep that to a minimum. As noted above, they announced the flagship phone for 5 major US carriers. Starting with T-Mobile on June 21st. For Galaxy S III news, pricing, pre-order dates, and information from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, US Cellular and more we’ll just make it easy by directing you to our Galaxy S III Portal.

Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus and Motorola XOOM both finally received Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich updates, Sadly way later than they should have. We even got a quick glimpse of the upcoming DROID Incredible 4G LTE in a leaked video but are still waiting for Verizon to officially announce that budget-friendly mid-range phone.

To round things off this week Google will soon be offering their Maps service with full offline support on Android. Followed by the Oracle lawsuit getting a second victory when the judge ordered Oracle to pay all of Google’s legal fees — a sum of around $300,000 or more. Last but not least Verizon has continued its 4G LTE dominance and have launched in new markets in Florida, North Caroline, Missouri, and more all the way to Oregon, and Motorola’s next phone to enjoy Verizon 4G LTE speeds leaked as the DROID RAZR HD.

School’s finally out so remember to be good, don’t have too much fun, and always make a Nandroid backup before flashing your favorite custom ROM. Get additional details from all the news above and more from the timeline below.

Verizon and AT&T won’t honor Dropbox 50GB promo for Galaxy S III

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 11:36 AM PDT

When Samsung announced their new Galaxy S III smartphone back in May we all learned new users would also receive 50GB of cloud storage free for 2 years from the folks at Dropbox — a good deal indeed. While worldwide users are already enjoying this free promo we’ve learned some bad news for the US. Both Verizon and AT&T have sadly opted out of this promo, and won’t be allowing the Dropbox freebie.

Pretty bum deal if you ask me. Samsung may have put their foot down and refused carrier-customized versions of their new flagship smartphone, but this shows carriers can still control the little things. We can only assume they have their reasons. Possibly for data usage or because they want to offer their own cloud options. Either way it doesn’t paint a good picture for the carriers. Everyone else to buy and enjoy the Galaxy S III will get 50 GB of free storage for 2 years.

According to the official support pages at Dropbox "Select carriers have opted-out of the promotion on phones otherwise eligible," and "Unfortunately, AT&T and Verizon are among these carriers not currently participating” as you can see from the screenshot above. While this is hardly a deal breaker, it is bad news and should potentially help out the sales for international models or for T-Mobile. I’d be making a quick build.prop file edit if I purchased the phone for Verizon.

I guess Verizon and AT&T customers can enjoy the usual free amount, or maybe opt for Google Drive and their 5GB limit.