Android Community |
- Netflix for Android officially gets new UI update
- Aakash 2 tablet arriving next month in India for $35
- Motorola revises timeline of Ice Cream Sandwich updates
- Samsung unveils Jelly Bean update roadmap
- Samsung Galaxy S III Jelly Bean update begins rollout
- Android Community Weekly: September 23rd, 2012
| Netflix for Android officially gets new UI update Posted: 24 Sep 2012 11:18 AM PDT We heard word a few days ago that Netflix would be bringing a new tablet-like user interface to its Android app, and it looks like that’s officially a go. Netflix detailed the new interface on their blog, mentioning that the new UI borrows heavily off of their tablet UI that they released last year.
The new user interface squeezes in more movies and TV shows onto your screen and fits them into a nice scrolling UI, while still providing personalized suggestions towards the bottom. Your recently-watched content now shows up at the top of the list, while your Instant Queue is shown on the home screen just under the Top 10 list. The browse menu provides you with a list of genre galleries that show tons of titles organized into categories. There’s even a family and kids gallery with movies and TV shows categorized by age. A single finger tap on a title brings up relevant information, while a double-tap actually starts playback of the show. You can also utilize the search function anywhere in the app. To be honest, we’re really excited that Netflix brought over their tablet UI to Android smartphones. It’s been a long-time coming, since Android phone users were forced to deal with the old user interface for a while. We simply cannot do without our streaming shows and movies, so this update was a welcomed one. [via SlashGear]
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| Aakash 2 tablet arriving next month in India for $35 Posted: 24 Sep 2012 10:50 AM PDT We’ve heard about the Aakash tablet series before. The original Aakash was a surprisingly decent tablet for how cheap it was, and the company has now announced that the Aakash 2 will be releasing in India next month on the anniversary of the original Aakash tablet’s release.
The Aakash 2 is currently being supplied to students at the India Institute of Technology in Bombay and has been for the past month and a half. DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli plans to officially launch the device on October 5, the anniversary of the release of the original Aakash tablet. The company plans to manufacturer around 220 million units to distribute across India. The Aakash 2 Tablet (formerly known as the Ubislate 7+) has a 7-Inch display, an ARM Cortex-A8 processor clocked at 1 GHz, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, a front-facing camera, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread to top it all off. It also has a SIM slot for phone capabilities, as well as a microSD card slot to expand storage space. The tablet is being supplied to students for free, and will cost around INR 2000 (approx. $35) at retail stores in India. Apparently, the company has already received an additional 5.5 million orders for the new tablet from general customers, and they also plan to give Ice Cream Sandwich updates to those who pre-ordered. [via TechSnapr]
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| Motorola revises timeline of Ice Cream Sandwich updates Posted: 24 Sep 2012 10:30 AM PDT While Samsung is keeping up with the curve on its Jelly Bean updating cycle, Motorola is still stuck on Ice Cream Sandwich. Over the weekend, the company updated its plans on its Ice Cream Sandwich release schedule. They’ve officially set new timelines for devices like the Droid Bionic and the Xyboard.
Motorola confirmed that they are working very closely with Google and their carrier partners to ensure they get Android updates rolled out to its users in a timely manner. Thanks to a handy chart, the company has laid out update release schedules for a handful of their devices, most of which will receive Ice Cream Sandwich sometime in Q4. Some of those devices include the Droid Bionic and the Droid Xyboard 8.2, while the Atrix 2, Photon 4G, and the Electrify still have yet to be determined with “further plans coming soon” as the placeholder. Hopefully we hear from those devices soon, but we’re really only mostly excited about the Droid Bionic, which is arguably one of Motorola’s most popular devices. What’s slightly disappointing (yet almost not surprising), is that Motorola is keeping a lot of its older devices at Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The Droid 2, Droid 3, and the Droid X2 all will remain on Gingerbread with no plans to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s sad to see it come to this, but it’s certainly not too surprising. We’re definitely bummed that Google’s acquisition of Motorola really isn’t doing much for Motorola’s update cycle for its devices. [via Droid Life]
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| Samsung unveils Jelly Bean update roadmap Posted: 24 Sep 2012 09:53 AM PDT Samsung has finally gotten in the groove of releasing Jelly Bean to its latest devices, including the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon and the Galaxy S III just today. Samsung also detailed more devices for which it will bring Jelly Bean to, but it doesn’t look good overall. In total, there are 15 devices that Samsung plans to equip Jelly Bean with at some point.
While 15 devices may sound like a lot (it is), Samsung is leaving out a lot of its older devices from the upgrade list, one device being the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which was given out to developers at Google’s I/O conference in 2011. Here’s a list of the 15 devices that Samsung plans to roll out Jelly Bean for: - Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 All of these devices will see the usual Jelly Bean upgrades we’ve talked about before, like Project Butter (a smoother and snappier UI), improved notifications, and automatic widget re-sizing. We should also expect Samsung to put their own twist into the updated mobile OS with their TouchWiz UI. The company hasn’t said exactly when it plans to roll out Jelly Bean for these devices, providing only a generic “coming soon” for those asking. However, we should expect to see unlocked devices to be the first to receive Jelly Bean. Samsung warns that devices sold through carriers will most likely receive delays. [via SlashGear]
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| Samsung Galaxy S III Jelly Bean update begins rollout Posted: 24 Sep 2012 09:52 AM PDT According to reports from users over in Europe, Jelly Bean has begun to roll out to Samsung‘s flagship phone, the Galaxy S III. We’ve heard that Jelly Bean would be coming to the S III in October, so it looks like it’s getting an early head-start with users in Europe. Hopefully the US will be getting the update sooner than expected as well.
European users say that the Jelly Bean update has been showing up via the KIES update app as a tethered update (rather than over-the-air like most updates). The approximate 280 MB update includes all the cool new features we saw back in July at Google’s I/O event, like Project Butter, Google Now, and improved notifications. Eastern European countries such as Poland, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia are receiving the update now, while other European countries will most likely see it a little later. We have a feeling that Samsung will take its time rolling out Jelly Bean to the Galaxy S III in order to protect its servers from overloading and crashing, so you’ll most likely have to be very patient. While all the new features of Jelly Bean will be present on the S III, Samsung will most likely keep its TouchWiz UI at the forefront, which means we might possibly see some improved user interface changes, but you still won’t be able to experience the true vanilla interface of Jelly Bean on the S III without rooting and flashing a custom ROM. Device Info
Display
Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
Software
Hardware
 Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
 [via SlashGear]
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| Android Community Weekly: September 23rd, 2012 Posted: 23 Sep 2012 04:17 PM PDT It was an exciting and fun filled week in the mobile word this week, although most of it wasn’t Android related. This week was big for the smartphone market as a whole moving forward. Apple launched their new iPhone 5 and while it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, it still will make its dent. However, Android is still as strong as ever so lets check out what happened this week.
So what mattered to us the most for Android news this week? Well, lots of stuff. Probably the most exciting yet the most boring at the same time was Android 4.1 Jelly Bean finally rolled out to the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The wait has been a long one, and every other Galaxy Nexus (including in Canada, and the Now Network) got it first. Verizon had the exclusive device launch here in the US, yet was last to update the it. Most have moved on to custom ROMs, but for those that didn’t it was good news. Probably the biggest other set of news was the fact that Samsung announced their excellent looking Galaxy Note II 5.5-inch phablet smartphone will be hitting for ALL major US carriers by mid November. Just like the Galaxy S III the Note II will see a nationwide launch. Good stuff Samsung, keep it up. That device will be launching out of the box with Jelly Bean, a first for Samsung.
This was the first week without an excess of Samsung news as of late, but who stole the show in their absence was LG. Their new LG Optimus G quad-core powered 4.7-inch IPS display rocking smartphone is probably the most exciting phone we’ll see the next month or so. It will be available in Korea starting tomorrow, and should arrive in the US in October or early November. You’ll want to check out our Optimus G hands-on for a better idea of what to expect. Then to round off the week with important bits, Motorola announced the RAZR i for Europe with Intel’s 2.0 GHz dual-core processor, and HTC’s 5-inch phablet leaked as the One X5. Then to end on a few good (and bad) notes the ASUS Padfone 2 specs leaked in full, Verizon’s CFO bashed unlimited data and doesn’t think it’ll be around in the future, Samsung bashed the iPhone 5 in another awesome commercial, and speaking of the iPhone — Motorola took the opportunity and made fun of Apple’s new Maps app for the iPhone and showed off the awesomeness of Google Maps. In case you haven’t heard, iPhone 5 users have been getting lost with the not-so-perfect Maps app that replaced Google Maps. Hit the links below for more news, and we’ll see you next week!
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