Android Community |
- Nikon Coolpix S800 set to be first Android smart camera
- T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note and myTouch phones available today
- Google Maps live traffic alerts now support 130 new cities
- OUYA games listed, support for XBMC announced
- Nexus 7 8GB “sold out” on the Google Play Store [Update: Back]
- Nexus 7 overclocked to 1.64 GHz, destroys benchmarks
| Nikon Coolpix S800 set to be first Android smart camera Posted: 08 Aug 2012 10:37 AM PDT Nikon is prepared to launch their first Android-powered smart camera according to recent leaks and rumors from Nikonrumors. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors or ideas regarding an Android camera, but this could be the real deal. Reports are suggesting this will be the first of possibly many from Nikon.
Smartphones have pretty impressive cameras, so why do we need a smart camera? The first Android-powered camera from Nikon is set to be the Coolpix S800, and run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. For now it will be a part of their mid-range point-and-shoot effort (no DSLR here) so the specs are quite average. Like mentioned above, Android 2.3 Gingerbread is what we’re hearing but that hasn’t been confirmed. The camera will feature a 3.5-inch OLED display. Rumors also state Google Play will be supported, and that 3.5-inch screen can accommodate most Android apps. If I see people playing Angry Birds on their cameras, I might lose my mind. Then the Coolpix S800 will reportedly come with a 25-250mm lens of unknown megapixels, along with built-in GPS and WiFi — just like all smartphones. I like the idea, but at the same time find this to be pointless and possibly just a fad. Earlier this year other manufacturers showed a similar interest, but we’ve not heard further reports on that. We could see Nikon make a formal announcement on or around August 22nd, so stay tuned. [via SlashGear]
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| T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note and myTouch phones available today Posted: 08 Aug 2012 09:41 AM PDT Today is a big day for the folks over at T-Mobile, as they’ve just launched a few brand new smartphones for the end of the summer. In case you haven’t been following along their version of the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note is available starting today — although it isn’t cheap. They also have a pair of rather decent mid-range budget friendly phones too.
We are expecting Samsung to announce the new Galaxy Note 2 later this month at IFA 2012, but that isn’t stopping T-Mobile from launching the original. It’s been available for almost a year, but now those on T-Mobile can enjoy the 5.3-inch phablet and S-Pen stylus fun of the Galaxy Note. Don’t forget to check out our T-Mobile Note Review. That isn’t all either. While the Note is a high end, expensive offering, T-Mobile also has the budget crowd covered today too. Starting today they’ll also be selling their latest version of the myTouch. This has been a budget product with T-Mobile for ages, but these new Huawei myTouch phones we’ve also reviewed, the myTouch and myTouch Q, both running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 4-inch screen can also be purchased today. They are the same price, only one has a keyboard for those heavy texters.
Available today right this minute is the Samsung Galaxy Note from T-Mobile for $249 after a $50 mail in rebate, or the myTouch and myTouch Q will run you $49 after the same $50 mail in rebate. The Galaxy Note might be late to the party but options are always a good thing, and T-Mobile knows that. Will you be picking one up today?
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| Google Maps live traffic alerts now support 130 new cities Posted: 07 Aug 2012 01:15 PM PDT Today Google has unleashed another huge update for Google Maps. While this update isn’t on the app side that will need downloading, instead it is backend features that will enable their real-time live traffic status alerts and details to an additional 130 cities across the US. That is a huge update if you ask us, and they’ve even included Costa Rica, and Panama City too.
Today on the official Google LatLong Blog they’ve detailed what’s new, and who’s all being updated to enjoy this amazing feature. This is something we can all use in our daily life, and I’m so use to it it’s just second nature for me. Their live traffic features went live in 2008 but they haven’t issued many updates to the service. Today that has completely changed. Here’s a quick video: Now if you are headed to work, or traveling for a vacation Google Maps will now be able to help you with traffic alerts, status updates and more all in over 130 new cities across the United States. This same update also includes Colombia, the streets of Bogotá, San José, and arterial roads in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Users can now enjoy travel alerts, traffic updates, and even estimated time arrivals and travel times. The U.S. aren’t the only lucky ones either. They’ve also either rolled out or expanded the same features to Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom today as well. It looks like Apple chose the wrong time to bail on Google Maps. It now has even more features than ever and is getting better by the week. Remember to drive save, and keep those hands on the wheel!
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| OUYA games listed, support for XBMC announced Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:58 PM PDT We’ve entered the final hours of OUYA‘s Kickstarter, and with the clock winding down, the OUYA team has made a couple exciting announcements. First and foremost, the team shared some new renders of the console, and as it turns out, OUYA is very tiny. Of course, we weren’t expecting it to be massive since it won’t use any discs, but we weren’t quite expecting it to be this compact either. Have a look below.
As if these new renders weren’t enough, OUYA also announced that it has partnered with the team behind XBMC, a pretty famous open source media player. Apparently fans demanded this particular team-up quite frequently through outlets like Reddit and Twitter, and being unable to ignore the requests any longer, OUYA and XBMC decided to go for it. Talks between the two are “young” still, so we don’t have too much information to share, but XBMC says that more details will be coming soon.
In other news, OUYA will also be supporting TuneIn, a free radio service that offers access to 70,000 different stations and 2 million on-demand programs across 230 territories and countries. This partnership undoubtedly came about because iHeartRadio will only be available in the US, so OUYA had to give international users something they can get excited about too. Want more OUYA news? How about this list of planned OUYA games? The list was put together by @bluecollarart, and features games from developers who have made some kind of commitment to launching on OUYA:
That’s a pretty sizable list for a console that we’ve only known about for a month, so here’s hoping that the developers of those games stay committed to supporting OUYA. As stated above, we’re in the final hours of OUYA’s Kickstarter, and with 33 hours left to go, the team has raised $7,235,503. There’s a chance that figure may cross the $7.5 million mark by the time everything wraps up, but even if it doesn’t, OUYA has more than enough money to throw around as this console is turned into a reality. Stay tuned, because OUYA’s story has only just begun.    [via SlashGear]
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| Nexus 7 8GB “sold out” on the Google Play Store [Update: Back] Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:23 PM PDT While we don’t know exactly what type of sales numbers Google and ASUS have seen with their new Nexus 7 tablet, we expect them to be great. With such an amazing device all for the low price of $199 how can it not sell? After it sold out just about everywhere initially back in July, we are now seeing it sell out on the Google Play Store too.
As of this afternoon Google has changed the status of their 8GB Nexus 7, and now it’s listed as “coming soon” leading us to believe they’ve sold out. I have a feeling they have no more stock left, and are waiting for ASUS to churn out more units from the factory and get them shipped to buyers. The 16GB version had the same fate early, and then came back a few weeks later. Currently the 16GB Nexus 7 is still listed as “In Stock” and users that purchase it should be able to get it right away, but the 8GB model appears to be MIA. We’ve seen the tablets estimated ship date be pushed back a few weeks, leading us to believe they were low or out of stock, but now it’s been completely removed. Instead of just saying “shipping in 3-4 weeks” like before, it now says “coming soon.” It’s safe to say the demand for Google’s Nexus 7 tablet has been overwhelming, and it’s been selling like hot cakes. Sadly Google and ASUS have been silent on any actual numbers. I’d love to see just how many Nexus 7 tablets have actually been sold. I have a feeling the number is quite high, but we won’t know until they break their silence. For now only the 16GB model is available from Google, and we’ll update once we know more. Update: Now that is just weird. They are now listed back as “In Stock” and are shipping in 3-5 days like before. I think Google might be confused! Device Info
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 [via Play Store]
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| Nexus 7 overclocked to 1.64 GHz, destroys benchmarks Posted: 07 Aug 2012 11:51 AM PDT Those awesome Android developers never let up when it comes to the cutting edge. Take the Nexus 7 for example. It rocks the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and packs plenty of power. Thanks to a few of our favorite developers and kernel builders we now have it overclocked to nearly 1.7 GHz, and destroying everything on the market in terms of benchmarks. More details to get started yourself below.
Now there’s tons of skilled kernel hackers out there in the world of Android. Franco, Faux, and of course my personal favorite Trinity — who goes by Morfic. While I can’t speak for all of them, we’ve been testing out Trinity Seven (Der Kernel by Morfic) on our Nexus 7 tablets and have been getting amazing results. As you can see above (and below) over 7,000 in Quadrant is nothing to laugh out. That is simply stunning. Not only that, but we get amazing battery life at the same time.
For those familiar with the hacking and modding community, you’ll need to be rooted to perform this type of task. Which I’m assuming most know how to do. After following the development by Morfic over at RootzWiki or XDA and cranking the Nexus 7 to 1.64 GHz on all four cores, it blasts out the competition in regards to benchmarks. We’ve seen Qualcomm’s new S4 Pro quad-core score well over 7,000 too, but it’s not yet available. The Nexus 7 is, and is only $199. Price/performance ratio has truly met its match. We know you must be thinking that running at 1.64 GHz on all four cores must kill the battery. Yes that is true, but that is why the Trinity Kernel Toolbox lets you control that. Overclock when you’re gaming and want optimal results. Then underclock for everything else. Not only that, but standby usage (when it’s sitting on a desk) has been severely improved. So not only does Trinity kernel offer amazing performance, but you get amazing battery life too. Deep sleep mode means after even 12 hours of awake time you’ll still have plenty of battery left. Just look at the screenshot below. Obviously results will vary. Running a completely vanilla AOSP version of Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, rooted, and of course running the Trinity Seven kernel is how these results were achieved. All the details and information is provided at the via link below, or download these faster alpha builds from derkernel.com. The bigger picture here is what can we expect from NVIDIA’s recently rumored 1.7 GHz quad-core processor coming later this year. If developers can achieve this, so can they. When Qualcomm’s S4 Pro arrives later this year, and NVIDIA’s improved Tegra 3 quad-core does too, we expect some awesome competition. More details can be found at the RootzWiki link above, or XDA below.    Device Info
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[via Trinity Kernel] – Thanks Simms22
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