Android Community |
- Facebook for Android updated with faster photo sharing and more
- T-Mobile Concord announced as most affordable smartphone – just $99
- Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core in upcoming LG phones
- Gameloft’s Wild Blood gameplay trailer released [Video]
- Nexus 7 available in Germany starting September 3rd
- Oakland police force AT&T to disable 2G towers
- Motorola has no plans to unlock older devices
- Samsung Galaxy Metrix 4G announced by US Cellular
- LG Optimus Vu heads to Verizon as the LG Intuition for $199
- ECOXPOWER brings a smartphone charger to your bicycle
- HTC One S update hits with Sense UI 4.1 and bug fixes
- Archos 80 XS and 97 XS tablets coming soon
- Four new games added to Humble Bundle for Android 3
- HTC One V hits Cricket Wireless next month
| Facebook for Android updated with faster photo sharing and more Posted: 23 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT Look, a Facebook update. Late last night an update rolled out for Facebook for Android that promises a few enhancements, better feature, and of course speed. Whenever Facebook for Android mentions speeds I’m hesitant but this one is regarding photos. They’ve added a new photo upload process that is faster too.
The Facebook update is available right now over at the Google Play Store, and promises much faster and multiple photo uploading. Not only that but we also have a new “photo flow” user interface that neatly shows all the photos too. You can now create and share events with ease right from your Android smartphone or tablet. Facebook’s tablet support still seem to be lacking, but it’s slowly getting there — slowly. Last but not least the update also introduced the option to add photos and emoji smileys to messages all on Facebook for Android. The fact that you can now simply and quickly add one, or multiple photos to messages or your usual photo album is a small but much needed update. Those people that upload tons and tons of photos to their Facebook pages all from mobile will surely be happy to see this option. We know you all love those emoji faces so enjoy. Get it now while it’s hot!
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| T-Mobile Concord announced as most affordable smartphone – just $99 Posted: 23 Aug 2012 09:50 AM PDT The folks at T-Mobile just dropped the news regarding their newest Android smartphone to grace customers nationwide. It’s called the T-Mobile Concord and is being touted as their “most affordable smartphone.” This new device is a contract free and budget friendly. They’re calling it the perfect phone for first time smartphone buyers. More details below.
This ultimate back-to-school priced device is a rather mid-range phone at best, but offers an exceptional value and comes with no annual contract. That’s right. This is a contract free Android smartphone all for just $99 from T-Mobile. The phone is actually made by ZTE, but looks quite nice for the price. With the T-Mobile Concord you’ll get a decent little 3.5-inch display, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 2 megapixel camera (for those Facebook shots) and a 2GB SD card included. The important thing here is you’ll get all of that with no annual contract for only $99. T-Mobile is also touting this as the perfect device for a first time smartphone buyer. With an easy to use interface and simplistic design and more. The brand new ZTE T-Mobile Concord is available right now starting today at Walmart for $99.98, and you can expect to see it arrive in Target stores nationwide on August 26th for $99.99 as well. Read more over at ZTE.com
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| Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core in upcoming LG phones Posted: 23 Aug 2012 09:38 AM PDT Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a few leaks regarding an upcoming smartphone from the folks at LG that is rather powerful. Blasting through benchmarks and sounding quite impressive. Then even more details leaked regarding the LG Optimus G smartphone. We now can confirm that Qualcomm‘s extremely fast and efficient new quad-core will be powering the device.
The current processor powering all the most popular smartphones is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, that manages to hold its own rather well against current quad-cores. We got our first look at the new S4 Pro quad-core last month but we now know it is coming, and coming soon. Qualcomm has confirmed they’ve partnered with LG and have been collaborating on releasing a powerful quad-core 4G LTE device they are calling a “global device.” This will support full 3G and 4G LTE with what they call 3G/LTE multi-mode. So the tradeoff between 3G and 4G LTE will be seamless — something we haven’t seen in the past.
Qualcomm calmly mentions an anticipated release date for September with a global rollout to follow. We’ve heard rumors of an LG Eclipse 4G LTE quad-core phone headed to AT&T in October, so this seems to confirm previous leaks. Either way we can expect some impressively powerful quad-core smartphones to blow the competition away in the next few months thanks to Qualcomm. Have a look below at some recent quad-core news and stay up to date.
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| Gameloft’s Wild Blood gameplay trailer released [Video] Posted: 22 Aug 2012 04:16 PM PDT Gameloft‘s first Unreal powered game to make its way to mobile devices, Wild Blood, has finally been shown off today. After initially teasing gamers a few weeks back about the upcoming game today we have the first gameplay trailer. If you want to get a taste of Gameloft’s next-gen game take a peek below.
For those that don’t know, it’s called Wild Blood and is running on Epic’s Unreal Engine so we know the graphics will be amazing. It looks to be a rather impressive 3D game with stunning graphics, visuals, and effects. All the jumping and swords thashing into enemies sure looks legit. Check it out: Gameloft has continued to be a big supporter of in-game purchases and we have a feeling this will be no different. There’s piles of coins flying around after slashing through each enemy, leading us to think you’ll be required to purchase additional content such as weapons, maps, and more. Most likely this will be a freemium title if they have in-game purchases, but you never know. Being the first Unreal powered game from Gameloft we have no clue what to expect on pricing, and Gameloft hasn’t mentioned much other than releasing this teaser trailer. We can see a little Infinity Blade mixed in there, that is for sure. Either way the games graphics and visuals look stunning and we can’t wait to give it a try. Gameloft doesn’t reveal much but ends the video stating that it’s “coming soon.”
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| Nexus 7 available in Germany starting September 3rd Posted: 22 Aug 2012 03:38 PM PDT While ASUS and Google’s popular Nexus 7 tablet is now widely available in many parts of the world, those in Germany have still been left out. Things are about to change however as German site AndroidNext has confirmed the tablet will be available starting September 3rd across Germany.
Apparently some details leaked that a popular German store Saturn would be getting units of the 16GB Nexus 7 starting on September 3rd and those reports have seemingly been confirmed. Multiple retailers across Germany should start receiving the impressive budget tablet and selling them shortly. The details can’t technically be confirmed as it was only mentioned by a store headquarters rep, but they feel pretty confident in the information. IFA is starting in Berlin, Germany, at the end of the month and running into the first week of September so that also makes sense as the details all line up for a device launch. According to Saturn the 16GB Nexus 7 is listed at 249 Euro’s but full pricing and availability has yet to be confirmed, nor is it final. The Nexus 7 has been a hot device as of late and selling out here in the Play Store and at multiple retail stores across the US. Be sure and hit up the timeline of links below for more details and our review of the Nexus 7 tablet. Device Info
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| Oakland police force AT&T to disable 2G towers Posted: 22 Aug 2012 03:06 PM PDT Lately, the Oakland Police Department has been having some issues with its brand new $18 million radio system. Apparently, the police have discovered the cause of all this interference, and it seems that 2G cell phone towers owned by AT&T are at least partially to blame. Obviously, having police officers who can’t communicate with one another or with firefighters is no good, and AT&T has been forced to partially disable 16 of its towers as result.
Luckily, with these being 2G towers, only a small amount of AT&T’s users will be affected, as phones using 2G towers are among some of AT&T’s oldest. Police officers were having trouble with radio communication all the time, but noticed that it got particularly bad when they were within a quarter mile of AT&T’s towers. Even though it would appear that AT&T’s towers are to blame, Oakland public safety systems adviser David Cruise tells SFGate that the investigation into the interference is still on-going:
AT&T isn’t the only carrier whose towers are being targeted with this investigation. It may not be long before T-Mobile has to deactivate some its towers as well, as those towers use a frequency that may also interfere with police communications. AT&T, for it’s part, says that it deactivated its towers as soon as it was notified that it may be causing an issue, so the company seems to be willing to do whatever it takes to get police radios functioning properly.
It’s lucky that the police were able to at least partially figure out what was causing the interference, as they report that they frequently experienced outages which left them unable to communicate with dispatchers. Not being able to receive transmissions from dispatchers is a huge problem, so hopefully this solution lasts – and if it doesn’t, here’s hoping that the Oakland Police Department completely understands the issue soon. [via SlashGear]
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| Motorola has no plans to unlock older devices Posted: 22 Aug 2012 02:45 PM PDT Sadly I’m not really surprised with the news that just landed in our tip box this afternoon. Motorola has just released an informal statement over on Twitter regarding the bootloader unlock process they’ve recently released. Today they’ve confirmed that older devices will not get their bootloaders unlocked.
The folks from Droid-Life spotted a conversation by Motorola employees going on over at Twitter and sadly we just learned what we already were all thinking. If you want to unlock the bootloader on that DROID Bionic, or DROID X2 it looks like that won’t be officially happening any time soon — if at all.
Motorola finally announced and released their bootloader unlock tool late last week, just like ASUS and HTC did, but the bad news continues for Motorola. HTC slowly but surely added most of their 2011 lineup including the old HTC ThunderBolt to the list, and unlocked all the bootloaders. Apparently Motorola doesn’t feel the same way and won’t be taking that route. They’ve just confirmed that older devices won’t be unlocked and that unlocking older devices “is not currently in the plan.” Pretty sure you guys can all thank Verizon for that one — just a thought. They also don’t mention the DROID RAZR, but hopefully that gets the unlock treatment as it’s one of their most popular devices to date. We’ve seen a public outcry for these things in the past cause HTC to cave on decisions, but I have a feeling we won’t be so lucky with Motorola. Carry on folks! [via Twitter]
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| Samsung Galaxy Metrix 4G announced by US Cellular Posted: 22 Aug 2012 02:07 PM PDT Today the folks from US Cellular are getting another Samsung smartphone to grace their growing 4G LTE network. Having just announced the new Samsung Galaxy Metrix 4G QWERTY slider smartphone. This is surely a budget aimed device but comes complete with a 4-inch display, full keyboard, and 4G LTE. Check it out below.
The Metrix 4G will be hitting US Cellular stores starting Friday, August 24th, and is currently up on USCellular.com. This budget-friendly device packs a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 1.0 GHz single-core processor and a 5 megapixel camera all for a decent price. The device resembles Verizon’s Samsung Stratosphere and rocks the same keyboard. Pricing consists of $179 after a $100 mail in rebate and a new 2-year contract, but for those in a USCC 4G LTE area it will only run you $129 instead — after the same $100 MIR. As you can see above the keyboard is quite spacious, and this should be a great back to school device since we know everyone is on the lookout for deals. Pricing seems a bit odd punishing those that don’t have 4G LTE (which isn’t their fault) but US Cellular is trying quite hard to get more users on their regional 4G LTE services. The new Metrix 4G might not compete with the Galaxy S III on US Cellular, but then it’s priced much lower too. For those keyboard lovers or users on a budget this is worth a quick look. [via US Cellular]
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| LG Optimus Vu heads to Verizon as the LG Intuition for $199 Posted: 22 Aug 2012 01:09 PM PDT In case you haven’t been following along, LG’s 5-inch phablet named the LG Optimus Vu is headed to Verizon Wireless complete with 4G LTE. We’ve seen countless leaks and rumors so it’s no secret at this point. Today we have even more confirmation that it’s headed to Verizon, complete with a name change. The Optimus Vu will be branded as the Intuition by LG.
Most of LG’s devices on Verizon have been listed this way with “by LG” following the name so this all makes perfect sense. Today the folks at Droid-Life received the details above and can confirm the LG Intuition will be announced shortly by Verizon, and then hit the shelves at $199.
We’ve seen multiple documents stating it would arrive this quarter, directly from LG. Pictures have shown the 5-inch smartphone in whole sporting the Verizon 4G LTE logo, and now we have this. The evidence are piling up and all we need now is Verizon and LG to make an official statement. With the Galaxy Note 2 being announced in just about a week we are all wondering what LG and Verizon are waiting for, but either way we’ll know the details soon. The Galaxy Note is available on AT&T and T-Mobile and this will be the first “phablet” device for Verizon. Hopefully the Galaxy Note 2 arrives for Verizon too so we can all forget about this Optimus Vu… I mean Intuition. HTC has their own phablet in the works too so this will be an interesting few months for large smartphones headed to Verizon. Device Info
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| ECOXPOWER brings a smartphone charger to your bicycle Posted: 22 Aug 2012 01:04 PM PDT For all those cyclists out there that make a regular commute to work we now have the perfect accessory to your Trek road bike. The folks from ECOXPOWER have released an all new charging system for your bicycle that will charge up your Android smartphone while you pedal away. It also fully supports headlights too for night riders.
At first thought this sounds quite odd, but the package actually is a headlight that will also charge up that Android smartphone at the same time. The device has a universal mount system and will work with most bike forks including those over-sized options. Then the handlebar mount is water-resistant and doubles as a smartphone or GPS mount. Obviously you’ll be mounting this down near your tires, then a USB adapter cable makes its way to the handlebars for input and charging. The entire package comes with an extra bright LED for the headlight, and ultrabright red LED’s for the rear to act as brake lights and protect riders during the night. Pretty interesting stuff right? The package contains a smartphone case that works with both iPhone and Android smartphones, a headlight remote on/off switch, and even an internal battery for pre-charging and recharging before a long ride. If you must charge your smartphone while riding get this today for just $99. [via SlashGear]
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| HTC One S update hits with Sense UI 4.1 and bug fixes Posted: 22 Aug 2012 12:23 PM PDT HTC has already confirmed their impressive new HTC One series of smartphone will receive Android 4.1 Jelly Bean soon, but not quite yet. Today an update has been confirmed for the folks enjoying the HTC One S and it’s bringing the handset to Android 4.0.4 and a new and improved Sense 4.1 UI. Head on past the break for full details.
Reports are flooding in that the international and European HTC One S has received the above mentioned update starting late last night. This is a rather small update bringing you from Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 to 4.0.4, but it also brings the new and improved Sense UI changes. They’ve tweaked the menu button mainly, but we already knew that. The 157MB update is rolling out to smartphones as we speak over the air, and users should already be seeing it — or they will shortly. Just like the recent HTC One X update you can now customize and remap the multitask key to better suite your needs. Many have made that their menu button, with long press acting as multitasking. As usual HTC is promising some performance enhancements and tweaks, and they’ve claimed to have fixed a few pesky but ongoing bugs, although we don’t have a full changelog. The camera should also be faster and improved, but sadly there’s also mention of some EA Games bloatware added too. Head to settings and check for updates or just wait as it should arrive shortly. Now it’s T-Mobile’s turn. Device Info
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[via The Verge]
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| Archos 80 XS and 97 XS tablets coming soon Posted: 22 Aug 2012 11:53 AM PDT Earlier today Archos finally unveiled their new G10 XS line of Android tablets starting with the Archos 101 XS. What makes these new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablets different from the rest is the included keyboard and protective cover they’re calling a coverboard. During the noise this morning they also detailed two more coming soon.
In case you missed it you’ll surely want to check out our Archos 101 XS Tablet Review. As that will give you a better idea of what to expect from this Android 4.0 ICS tablet. Sporting a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a keyboard all at 8mm thin. The tablet is sleek, lightweight, powerful, and cheap. According to Archos, they’ll be announcing and releasing very similar tablets both in their usual 8-inch size as well as a 9.7-inch XS option. These will be known as the Archos 80 XS and 97 XS. So far we’re hearing they’ll come with the same internal specs and dual-core processor, same awesome coverboard keyboard, and also at an excellent price. If Archos manages to price the 80 XS with 16GB of storage for $199 then they might have some competition for the Nexus 7, but as it stands — not so much. We can expect near identical devices with the 80 having a 1024 x 768 resolution, while the 9.7 manages to squeeze a 1280 x 800 screen inside. Archos hasn’t announced any details or pricing for these new models, and only the 101 is available starting next month. Stay tuned for more details.
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| Four new games added to Humble Bundle for Android 3 Posted: 22 Aug 2012 11:41 AM PDT Any Humble Bundle veteran knows that the games announced at the beginning of any given promotion are only the preliminary round. Like every Humble Bundle before it, the same holds true for the Humble Bundle for Android 3, as four additional games have been tossed into the mix. You’ll have to shell enough to the beat the average purchase price if you want them though, and at the time of this writing, the average sits at $6.17.
The games that have been added to the Humble Bundle for Android 3 are Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, World of Goo and Edge. Humble Bundle vets will immediately recognize all of those games, as they were part of the first Humble Bundle for Android. Not only that, but most of them were featured in even earlier Humble Bundles, so those who have longtime fans of the promotion have now had a few chances to snag them. This quartet of new indie games is joining Fieldrunner, Bit.Trip Beat, SpaceChem, Uplink and Spirits. With nine total games on offer, this has become a pretty solid bundle, and it seems that purchasers agree. After a week of availability, nearly 85,000 bundles have sold, bringing in over $500,000 for the developers and charity. There’s a week left to go before the Humble Bundle for Android 3 becomes unavailable, so it seems like this one is on track to break $1 million. Keep in mind that these games are also available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, so you’re not restricted to just Android if you buy. There’s also the fact that all of the games come DRM-free, which is a huge plus. Get those orders in quickly though, because in just about seven days, the Humble Bundle for Android 3 will cease to exist. [via SlashGear]
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| HTC One V hits Cricket Wireless next month Posted: 22 Aug 2012 11:11 AM PDT The impressive budget friendly HTC One V smartphone is headed to another carrier soon. Starting September 2nd you’ll be able to pick up this quality device from HTC on Cricket Wireless. This marks the fourth carrier here stateside to get the device. Following MetroPCS, US Cellular, and Virgin Mobile. Full details available below.
The HTC One V is an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich sporting device that manages to pack in almost everything you need, and then some you don’t (Beats Audio) all into a sleek device at a great price. As usual the device will come with Cricket’s Muve Music service, HTC Music, Google Music, and everything else we love about Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. To start you’ll want to take a peek at our full HTC One V review, then enjoy the quick hands-on video review posted below. If you want to know what to expect when this hits Cricket — this is a good start. For a budget offering the device is rather impressive. It comes with a 3.7-inch SLCD display, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, HTC Sense UI 4.0, a quality 5 megapixel camera and HTC’s dedicated Imagechip sensor for superior photos, and is powered by a 1.0 GHz single-core processor and 512MB of RAM. Again this nice option will be available on Cricket starting September 2nd. In the meantime check out the full specs and additional coverage below. Device Info
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[via SlashGear]
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