Android Community |
- DROID Bionic Android 4.0.4 ICS leaked – get it now
- T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S III available today – sort of
- Sony starts rollout of Android 4.0.4 for Xperia S
- SwiftKey 3 leaves beta, hits Play Store on sale for $1.99
- Google Maps Traffic updated to 7 new countries, expanded in 19 others
- Verizon 4G LTE hitting 46 new markets tomorrow, available in over 300 markets
- LG trashes tablets, decides to focus on smartphones
- Samsung Galaxy Tab Family getting Android 4.0 ICS next month
- Swype launches next-gen keyboard, available today [Hands-on]
| DROID Bionic Android 4.0.4 ICS leaked – get it now Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:52 AM PDT The still extremely popular Motorola DROID Bionic is getting some slightly good news today. While we are still awaiting the official update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich it looks like the folks from Motorola are getting close. Personally I think the Bionic should get updated before the RAZR, but that’s just me. Today however the near-final Android 4.0.4 build has leaked and is available to all.
Hopefully Verizon and Motorola are working hard to release this for all as soon as possible, but while we wait users can try the official leaked build if they’d like. It even works on stock recovery devices that haven’t been tweaked to CWM. We are hearing that the update makes the bionic “buttery smooth,” screen brightness seems improved, as does the camera, and it is overall quite stable. This actually is an official build that must be flashed using the Bionic’s stock .905 recovery from their latest official OTA. So users should be able to flash it and enjoy ICS with ease. We don’t have too many other details regarding the leaked 4.0.4 for the Bionic but it appears to be a go for now. Hopefully the official update will arrive in the next 2-4 weeks from Verizon themselves, but we have no status update on that front. Hit the link below to download and install ICS yourself. Device Info
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 [via Droid Hive]
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| T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S III available today – sort of Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:09 AM PDT Today is finally the day. The Samsung Galaxy S III has arrived stateside and those on the T-Mobile network can run to your nearest store and pick up the new flagship device, or it should be arriving in the mail shortly. Sadly Samsung appears to be having a bit of a product vs demand issue and almost all carriers are having to make adjustments, and T-Mobile is one of them.
Not only is T-Mobile asking more per device than any other US carrier, but they’ve also only released it to 29 of their most important and popular markets across the nation, and the rest will have to wait until next week on the 27th. It isn’t a big deal, but a bit of a bummer. AT&T, Verizon, and everyone else is asking $199, or $249 for the 16 and 32GB models — but not T-Mobile. T-Mobile has started off the 16GB Galaxy S III for $279 after a $50 mail in rebate and a new 2-year contract instead of $199 — oh and did we mention it’s the only one in the US that doesn’t have 4G LTE. Their HSPA+ speeds are plenty fast though so don’t worry. Then the 32GB model has the same MIR and will cost you $329 after the rebate. If you aren’t in one of T-Mobiles 29 markets getting the device today (see here) go ahead and check online at their shop to buy one now and get some overnight shipping. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until next Wednesday to pick up this bad boy. Don’t feel bad folks, AT&T had to do something similar, and Verizon’s isn’t coming til the second week of July. Device Info
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| Sony starts rollout of Android 4.0.4 for Xperia S Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:22 AM PDT Sony has announced that it is beginning to roll out the latest software update for its Xperia S smartphone. The new update will bring new media applications and Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich to the mobile phone. Among the new features the update will bring you are Walkman, Album, and Movies applications.
The Walkman application uses signature Sony audio technology and social features to allow you to discover music your friends like and share your personal favorites. The Album application adds new ways to sort and browse photos and video more quickly. It also adds instant viewing, sharing, and commenting for Facebook photos. The Movies application streamlines the playback of movies with high-quality audio and video and uses an intelligent database search to grab movie posters and information on the films for better user experience. Other upgrades the new version of Android brings include a lock screen with improved functionality, resizable widgets, improved control for mobile data consumption, and a recent apps button. The download for the update is around 200 MB and the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The availability of the update and schedule vary from country to country.
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| SwiftKey 3 leaves beta, hits Play Store on sale for $1.99 Posted: 21 Jun 2012 12:00 AM PDT Hands down one of the most popular 3rd party keyboards for Android, Swiftkey, has just left its beta tag behind and as of right now is finally available to everyone in the Google Play Store. We’ve talked about SwiftKey 3 here plenty as we’re big fans of the newest version out. Head below for more details, screenshots, video, and download links.
Fresh off of Swype announcing their new beta SK is here to take away their light. The all new SwiftKey 3 has tons of awesome features that makes it one of the best. Like predictive text, smart punctuation, no need to hit spacebar anymore, and tons of other things but the fact they listen to and update features based on their VIP community of over 65,000 users really is what makes it shine. Today they’ve added most of the features the community wants and have finally released SwiftKey 3 to the Play Store after about two months in beta. You can also watch the hands-on from SwiftKey themselves by clicking here. Along with the awesome new UI, two new themes, the improved spacebar and punctuation key they also have added support for more languages. Bringing the total supported language list up to 42. Now that they’ve ironed out a few bugs, improved features and performance here’s what you can expect from the full-featured version in the Play Store.
The entire keyboard is smoother, performs better, and just overall rocks. The prediction is awesome and they’ve not only improved that algorithm but the way it learns from users Facebook, Twitter, or Gmail has been improved too. Once you install it don’t forget to let it learn from your typing habits for better prediction. SwiftKey’s underlying technology is actually so accurate and impressive they’ve introduced SwiftKey Healthcare where their technology will help providers take notes and perform their jobs faster, this will lead to more patient time and more. We’ll be hearing more on that front soon but for today it’s all about Android. For more details and information on SwiftKey hit any of our multiple links below for full coverage. Enjoy the screenshots posted below, and then head to the Play Store link provided below to get the brand new SwiftKey 3 for phones or tablets today. As a reminder if you’ve paid for SwiftKey X this will be a free update. For a limited time SwiftKey is celebrating the launch with a half off sale, get it now for $1.99 while it’s hot!        
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| Google Maps Traffic updated to 7 new countries, expanded in 19 others Posted: 20 Jun 2012 04:36 PM PDT Google Maps is continuing strong today with an announcement that their live traffic updates and info is being added to 7 new countries across the globe, and being expanded and improved in another 19. With more than 900,000 Android devices activated daily we’re happy to have Google Maps and all its options.
iOS left Google Maps behind, and that is their own loss. A few weeks Google announced offline maps, and full 3D mapping both coming soon to Android, so it’s safe to say they won’t be slowing down anytime soon. While today’s news doesn’t effect us here stateside, you’ll be happy to hear if you’ve just got the features in your country.
Traffic updates, details, and patterns in Maps is a great feature for all Maps users — including mobile. Starting today these features will now be available in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Mexico, Peru, Romania and South Africa. Then for those that already have it, not all locations are covered. The new expanded countries include: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the UK. Good news for those that have been missing this awesome feature. Now we’ll just have to wait for offline and 3D maps to arrive for Android, then we’ll be set. [via Google Blog: via Android Police]
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| Verizon 4G LTE hitting 46 new markets tomorrow, available in over 300 markets Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:03 PM PDT Verizon 4G LTE just keeps getting bigger, better, and faster. Starting tomorrow, June 21st, Verizon 4G LTE will be added to an additional 46 locations in the US, as well as expanded in 22 other markets. That is good news for Verizon, and bad news for the folks over at AT&T that are still way behind in this numbers game.
In Verizon’s announcement this morning they were quick to point out that this brings their total 4G LTE markets to over 300 in the USA — 304 to be exact. Nicola Palmer, Chief Technical Officer of Verizon Wireless had this to say earlier today during their news announcement:
Stating that by the end of the year they expect 4G LTE from Verizon to be available to more than 400 networks across the US, and even mentioned by the end of 2013 they hope to have every 3G area also covered with 4G LTE. With all 3 major US carriers late to the LTE game, and T-Mobile not even kicking things off until next year (when Verizon expects to be rolling deep) Big Red has a pretty commanding lead so far. Their new Shared Data plans are another story though. For more details on all 46 new markets in New York, South Dakota, Colorado, Idaho and more hit the link below for the full news release and complete details. [via Verizon]
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| LG trashes tablets, decides to focus on smartphones Posted: 20 Jun 2012 02:33 PM PDT The folks from LG have announced some news lately that doesn’t come as much surprise to me. Remember the LG G-Slate tablet? Yea I don’t either. They released it way last year as one of the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, and it still sits on Android 3.1 Honeycomb to this day. With almost no support whatsoever they’ve been focused heavily on their smartphones, and apparently that will be the focus moving forward.
Reports from Bloomberg this week are stating that LG has decided to sideline the tablet and larger device plans in favor of focusing all their efforts to smartphones and phablets. Between the lack of sales, or even Microsoft’s Surface Tablet it appears they’ve thrown in the towel.
Their smartphone sales have been increasing and some of their new dual and quad-core 720p HD screen rocking smartphones have been making good progress. The tablet market however is rather competitive between the Transformer, Samsung, and of course Apple’s iPad. Hopefully we start to see more impressive devices like the LG Optimus 4X HD coming soon from the manufacturer. [via SlashGear]
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| Samsung Galaxy Tab Family getting Android 4.0 ICS next month Posted: 20 Jun 2012 01:26 PM PDT It’s about time Samsung starts updating all their Galaxy Tabs to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. They’ve released one at about every size you can think of, some more than once, and the latest Galaxy Tab 2 already has ICS out of the box. It’s only fair they get these updated and we are now hearing they’ll be doing exactly that starting next month.
According to insider reports to SamMobile the updates will start sometime next month and continue into August. Samsung plans to update almost all of their tablets although obviously the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab won’t see the upgrade. Here’s the list they apparently have confirmed: GT-P6210 Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0 WIFI Pretty good news right there. It looks like they’ll be updating all of their tablets they’ve released as of late. Most likely the Tab 7.7 LTE from Verizon will be last, but I’m hoping that isn’t the case as I own and love that tablet. Verizon tablets like the Xoom took forever to see the update over the WiFi model, but hopefully that won’t be the case here. Along with all the new features, improved UI, face unlock (maybe) and more that ICS brings we can also expect better performance and battery life for these slates. Stay tuned for additional dates once Samsung makes this all official. Check out the reviews on all those tablets listed from our timeline below.
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| Swype launches next-gen keyboard, available today [Hands-on] Posted: 20 Jun 2012 12:50 PM PDT After months of silence the extremely popular keyboard for Android is back today. I’m talking about Swype. One of the first 3rd party keyboards to really take off for Android has just hit the ground running this morning and announced their all new keyboard that they are calling “the next generation of Swype!” Now you can Swype, type, talk, or write all with a single keyboard. Check out our hands-on below.
Swype seems to have lost their edge as of late to SwiftKey X and the upcoming SwiftKey 3, and ever since they were acquired by Nuance we haven’t heard much. Today however they’ve fully launched their new attack and are back with a better keyboard than ever. This all-in-one solution brings Dragon Voice Dictation, Nuance FlexT9, Swype, and gesture writing all into one seamless keyboard. Below is a short video showing all of this in one quick scoop to see how well it really works. I must say, I’m pretty impressed so far. Personally for daily use I’ve felt Swyping takes too long but for those always texting or writing with one hand Swype is the best. One handed use is their bread and butter, and now they’ve added a solid regular typing method and improved Dragon dictation into an all-in-one solution. The next huge improvement is the predictive text engine. This has been a huge selling point for SwiftKey and is what makes it the best. Swype has integrated many similar offerings and now will learn from your Facebook, Twitter, or Gmail to better understand your typing habits, then saves it all for better prediction. Between all the options, settings, guides, and more Nuance has really brought the competition back to play.
Above is just a small example of the options, settings, and controls available through Swype although they still don’t offer any in-app theme options like many of the competing keyboards offer. So far I’m quite pleased with the changes, the small UI tweaks are for the better but I’d love to have a bigger spacebar so I don’t keep accidentally hitting the dictation voice button instead. As usual this is only in beta form and not yet available in the Google Play Store. If you’d like to give the brand new Swype a try right now you can do so by heading to beta.swype.com and sign up. The site seems a bit overloaded so it might take a try or two to get in, download the installer, and fully enjoy this new keyboard option. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Is Swype back and better than ever? Or is it too late and you’ve moved on to SwiftKey? Let us know!    
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