June 2010 Archives

Jun

Developers: Pre-Order Unity3D Pro Game Engine For Android – Get A Free Nexus One

Posted by Andrew Huff in Apps/Games, Dev, Games, News

Unity3D recently announced that pre-sales are going on for their Android version of their great 3D engine. Game developers who are still on the border as to whether or not they want to make the jump to Android or, if you already are developing for Android making the jump to Unity 3D, have a little more incentive now. Unity3D will give the first 500 Unity Pro for Android pre-sale orders a free Nexus One.

Free Nexus One

Yes you heard that correctly. The first 500 pre-sale orders for Unity Pro for Android will receive a free Nexus One phone.

SAN

...

Jun

SimpleRoot - Fully Root Your HTC EVO 4G In One Click, Including Unlocking NAND And Flashing Recovery [Hands-On]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Mods, News, Sprint

Last Updated: August 31st, 2010

This article mentions rooting and flashing of custom ROMs. If you’re unfamiliar with either term, hit up our primers here and here for additional information

This root does not work for Froyo. If you're reading this now, chances are very high that you already have Froyo or something higher, in which case stop and don't run steps from this method. For Froyo root, see this post instead.

Note: If your EVO software version starts with 1.47.651, we have an updated post with an updated SimpleRoot version right here.

EVO 4G owning ladies and gentlemen, if you've been waiting ...

Jun

[BREAKING] Confirmed: HTC Hero And Samsung Moment Will NOT Get Official FroYo

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, Froyo 2.2, Hero (Sprint, HeroC), HTC, Moment, News, Samsung, Sprint

Earlier today, an employee posted on Sprint’s blog saying that the EVO will be getting Android 2.2 soon. When asked if the update would go out to Hero and Moment users as well, his reply was:

No, it will not. 2.2 will not be available for HTC Hero or Samsung Moment

Shortly after, Sprint sent out an official tweet confirming:

Buzzkill. The majority of the remainder of the posts are people who are pissed off that Sprint is more or less abandoning them. However, Sprint is limited by the same constraints as the rest of the world - with the ...

Jun

FroYo Update For Evo 4G Being Finalized

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Froyo 2.2, HTC, Sprint

On their corporate blog, Sprint confirmed today that the Android 2.2 update for the EVO is being finalized. It’s pretty impressive that the FroYo source code was released just two days ago, and already Sprint is finalizing the code. Then again, as a corporate developer, Sprint had access to the source code earlier than the public, courtesy of the private code branch. It’s no surprise that they chose to update the EVO first, given that it’s their crown jewel.

As work on finalizing the software is under way, Sprint expects to launch the update in the near future – which ...

Jun

Droid X's Sexy Software Keyboard Ripped Out, Now Available For All Phones

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Devices By Manufacturer, Eclair 2.1, News, Nexus One (Passion), Tips

Earlier today we reported that the Droid X internals were leaked out and provided to developers to play with. It didn't take long at all - Droid X's software keyboard is already available for everyone to download.

This keyboard should work for any Android phone running 2.1 Eclair (it reportedly force closes for most on Froyo). It looks very clean, mostly due to the absence of most non-alphanumeric characters which can be accessed using a familiar looking button on the bottom left.

One thing that is strikingly different about Droid X's keyboard is multi-touch. You can press one button while ...

Jun

T-Mobile Prepping Dual Core-Powered, Gingerbread Running Monster

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, T-Mobile

** Thanks to AndroidGuys podcast host Scott Brown for this leak. **

T-Mobile’s been taking a lot of hits from the Android community recently, as they haven’t really caught up to the other carriers (well, Verizon and Sprint) in terms of great phones. Though they introduced us to Android with the G1, the rest of their Android offerings have been lackluster in terms of specs, with the recent myTouch Slide having only a 600 MHz processor and 3.4” screen being unable to compete with the likes of the Evo and upcoming Droid X. But a recent leak points to a ...

Jun

Editoral: Google Can Remove Users’ Apps – So What?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News

One of the requirements for writing for AP is that I follow 91 RSS feeds selected by Artem (don’t tell – I only follow 90. I’m just the rebellious type). I’ve seen at least a dozen articles today raising privacy concerns over the fact that Google can remotely remove users’ apps, and did so today to users who had 2 specific apps installed. So what?

To me, this shouldn’t be surprising, and isn’t a big deal. It’s standard operating procedure to have this control (Amazon has it with the Kindle, Apple has it with the iPhone), and whenever the ...

Jun

Droid X Internal Files Leaked - Boot Screen and Keyboard Ports Follow

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid X (Shadow), Mods, Motorola, News

Some lucky new Droid X user has leaked a Droid X system dump (the phones internal files). As a result, you can now download anything found on the Droid X – wallpapers, ringtones, apps (such as the video editor, backup assistant, and photo app), and boot animations. Not only that, but the legion of Android hackers is hard at work porting various features from the X – such as the multi-touch keyboard (which has already been ported to the Incredible) and the boot screen.

Nicely done, everyone. Looking forward to seeing some of that stuff ported to the original Droid....

Jun

Android 2.2 (Froyo) Coming To Motorola Droid In Late July, Droid X in Late August

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid (Sholes), Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, Motorola, News

The shot below, from the Verizon internal systems, shows that the original Droid will be receiving an OTA FroYo update sometime in late July. All things considered, that’s not a bad turnaround time if you ask me (especially when you consider that Samsung is just now upgrading the Behold from 1.5 to 1.6… slow as molasses in December).

The Droid X, on the other hand, won’t receive the update until late August.

Users around the web are complaining because the Droid is receiving the update before the Droid X. Considering the number of Droids sold, and the fact that ...

Jun

Epic LOL Of The Day: WireFly’s Android > iPhone Contest Shut Down

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News

Last Updated: December 27th, 2010

** Note: This article contains my personal speculation. WireFly will neither confirm nor deny what I suggest in this article. Please don’t sue me. **

Last week, WireFly started a contest called “Why Android Can Beat Up Your iPhone.” Contestants had to write an essay explaining why they thought Android devices were superior to the iPhone(s). There would be 5 winners, and their prize would be the Android device of their choice.

Today, they pulled down the contest. Since Wirefly suspiciously refused to comment on the situation, I begin my rampant (but, let's be honest – probably correct) speculation:

Apple ...

Jun

Next EVO 4G OTA Update Rumored To Arrive June 28th, And It Won't Be Froyo /Sad Face

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News

Good news for the battery-hurting EVO 4G users - the next update might be able to fix some issues that were causing excessive battery drain, among other things.

Here is a quick 3-point update, rumored to arrive on June 28th:

Improvements to Wi-Fi performance
Exchange Active Sync improvements which include a fix to issue including new account set up, PIN policy usage, and Exchange Server 2010 Calendar Sync
Addresses Social Networking Sync issue with Facebook application which can improve battery performance

The rumor comes from one of BGR's Sprint connections and is unconfirmed at the moment, but we will certainly ...

Jun

Developers Still Prefer iOS To Android – For Now

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News

A recent survey of over 2,700 mobile developers revealed that devs universally prefer developing for iOS (formerly iPhone OS – renamed iOS recently, as it is now used on the iPad). Apple ranks #1 in mobile phone market share, and there are more than a few stories of small-time devs creating apps for the iPhone that took off overnight, so it really isn’t all that surprising that Apple was a dev favorite.

Still, with Android picking up momentum at an exponential rate, I have to admit I was a bit surprised that Android didn't score closer to iOS. After all, ...

Jun

Latest Nexus One Froyo ROM Leak: FRF83

Posted by Ian Douglas in Froyo 2.2, Mods, Nexus One (Passion)

Plain vanilla post folks, 'cause I don't have the time or means to make it as pretty as I usually would.

For those of you still holding out on FRF50, here's an update to the latest leaked ROM:

http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRF83-from-FRF50.38d66b26.zip

~~You CANNOT update to this FRF83 version if you have~~ ~~FRF72~~ ~~installed. You can ONLY update to this ROM if you have already updated to FRF50.~~

You can now update from FRF72 - see Update 3 below.

For instructions please check the original FRF50 post. I'll add more content to this post as I have it available to me, ...

Jun

Google Reports 160,000 Android Activations Per Day; Plan For Global Domination Falling Nicely Into Place

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News

During today's press conference held by Google, Motorola, and Verizon, Google revealed that 160,000 Android devices are being activated per day.

If the gravity of that escapes you, let me draw comparisons to the record-breaking sales of the iPhone and iPad:

Excluding the iPhone 4 launch, Apple averages approximately 246,000 phone sales per week
Mac sales are estimated to be 110,000 units per week
iPad sales are estimated to be 200,000 per week

Extrapolate the 160,000 Android device activations per day and you come up with 1,120,000 Android activations per week - that's more than twice the combined total for iPhones, ...

Jun

Verizon’s New Superphone - The Droid X - Goes Official. $199, July 15th Launch, All Details Now Live

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

There have been plenty of leaks and rumors about the Droid X for the past few weeks, but now that it has been officially revealed, it looks even better. Here are all the official specs: