August 2010 Archives

Aug

Xperia X10’s Android 2.1 Upgrade Due By “The End Of September” According To Sony Ericsson UK

Posted by John Thompson in Eclair 2.1, News, Xperia X10 (es209ra)

With the US release of Sony’s Xperia X10, we were given taglines such as “smarter is coming”, but with Android 1.6 running the show, smarter may be a little bit of a loose term for now. Those of us on the other side of the pond may be in luck pretty soon, however, as Sony Ericcson’s UK Twitter account posted a reply to a user stating that Android 2.1 is due for release in the UK “before the end of September this year.”

If this information is indeed accurate (and we sure hope that it is), then X10s all over ...

Aug

Motorola Charm Rooted Via Universal Androot

Posted by Brian O'Toole in CHARM, Mods, News

Good news for the 12 people who have managed to get a Motorola Charm - Universal Androot works perfectly well. For the uninitiated, Universal Androot is exactly what it sounds like: an app that can root a whole slew of Android devices (disclaimer: it doesn't unlock /system on all of them, though). Instructions are pretty simple:

Download the latest version of the program from this XDA post to your computer.
Copy the file to your SD card.
Find and install it with your file browser of choice (I choose Android Mate in the market, or you can use Astro). Don’t

...

Aug

Real HDMI Unlocks Motorola Droid X's Crippled HDMI Functionality

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Droid X (Shadow), News, Verizon Wireless

A few months back (before it launched), we found out that the Droid X would have limited HDMI functionality - mainly, it would only work in gallery mode. Today, we stumbled upon a new app on AppBrain called Real HDMI that seems to remove that restriction. Check out the item description:

Warning: This only works for the Droid X.
Finally you can enable and disable the HDMI port on your Droid X. Use your favorite video players, applications and emulators on your big screen TV or Stereo.
- HDMI Video/Audio Out
- Car/Media Dock Modes
Find us at: http://www.droidxforums.com

User ...

Aug

Samsung Hits A Milestone: Over 1 Million Galaxy S Devices Shipped In US

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in AT&T, Captivate, Epic 4G, Fascinate, News, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vibrant

Samsung just sent out a press release that should help dampen the dullness today: according to Samsung, they've shipped over 1 million Galaxy S devices in the US. Not bad, especially considering they've only launched on 2 of the 6 carriers that will be getting the device. With such a hotly-anticipated and well-received line of devices, it's likely sales are really just getting started - after all, the Vibrant and Captivate only launched just over a month ago.

Samsung's Epic 4G will be launching on Sprint in just a few days (August 31), and rumor has it that Verizon's ...

Aug

CyanogenMod 6.0 Final Released

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Aria (Liberty), Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Dream, Droid (Sholes), Droid Incredible, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Hero, Hero (Sprint, HeroC), Mods, myTouch 3G (Magic), News, Nexus One (Passion), Sapphire, Vibrant

Looks like CyanogenMod 6, Android's most popular ROM, has made its way out of the RC's and into final release. I've been running CM6 on my EVO for a little over a month now, and I love it. And as most people know, CM6 now covers a fair number of devices:

Nexus One
Droid
Dream/Sapphire
Hero (GSM/CDMA)
Incredible
Slide
EVO
Galaxy S (Vibrant)
Aria

The above links lead to the CM6 info/download post on CM forums. The devices with no hyperlink don't have CM6 final yet - though they may have experimental builds (for example, the Incredible is on RC3). ...

Aug

Root Available For the Epic 4G You Don't Even Have Yet

Posted by David Ruddock in Epic 4G, Mods, News

That was quick - the Sprint's Epic 4G has already been rooted by the crew over at SDX-devs. In other words, now you can root that phone you don't have yet. It's a method requiring adb (Android Device Bridge) commands and thus desktop connectivity, but a one-click solution will probably emerge sooner rather than later. Note: it says EVO root, but the method works on this phone as well, don't let the filename fool you. Instructions below:

download this file
http://evo4g.me/downloads/evo-root.zip
run these commands thru adb
adb push c:\downloads\rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp
adb shell
chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
cd /data/local/tmp
./rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
exit out

...

Aug

[App Of The Week + Giveaway] Tasker: Automate Your Android + 20 Free Tasker Licenses (£3.99 Each)

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, Contests / Giveaways, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Have you ever wished your phone would just automatically silence itself while you're at work? Or maybe that it would immediately start Pandora when you plug in your headphones? Wish no longer: Tasker's got you covered.

This contest is now over. We have selected the winners - see if you are one of them towards the bottom of the page.

Tasker's goal is to automate (you guessed it) tasks on your Android device. This may sound a little trivial at first blush. But make no mistake, Tasker is anything but a trivial application. In fact, I can honestly say that ...

Aug

T-Mobile G2 To Take "With Google" To The Next Level Thanks To Google Voice Widget

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Froyo 2.2, G2 (Vision), HTC, News, T-Mobile

The crafty folks over at Droid Dog have just unearthed another secret buried deep in the G2's source code: a Google Voice widget.

They claim that it looks a lot like this:

and displays the amount of money in your Google Voice account, a compose message button, settings for Voice, a button for quick access to your inbox, and a button to turn Voice off.

Droid Dog is also reporting that the G2 will come with "just about every Google app available for Android," right out of the box. Then again, it's always better to have Google Translate pre-installed on ...

Aug

Firefox Mobile (Fennec) For Android Hits Alpha, Introduces New Features Including Electrolysis

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Mozilla Firefox for Android (also known as Fennec during development) has now reached a major milestone, with the release of the Alpha version being announced in a Mozilla blog post today by Stuart Parmenter. Joining Firefox Mobile as it enters the Alpha stage are a few more features than had been previously planned for implementation.

Amongst these features is Electrolysis, a very welcome addition to the latest builds, which separates the user interface and the content loading on the page in to two different processes, ensuring that the browser remains responsive even if a large page is being loaded. Stuart ...

Aug

Amazon Gets Aggressive - Samsung Epic 4G For $200 With New Contract

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Epic 4G, News, Off-Topic

Looks like Amazon isn't going to wait a few weeks to drop the price on the Epic 4G: they're already offering it for $200, $50 less than the other big-name stores. The device won't ship until launch (August 31), but they're offering free two-day shipping - albeit, with a minor disclaimer:

The new Samsung Epic from Sprint is now available for pre-order and should begin shipping on August 31, 2010. Due to demand for this device, you may experience a slight shipping delay.