September 2010 Archives

Sep

Stefano Giovannoni's AlessiTab Cooks Up November Release Date (In Italy), €399 Price Tag

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Eclair 2.1, News

Well, it looks like Motorola's updates to Android 2.1 Eclair updates aren't the only things leaving users hopelessly disappointed due to delays; Stefano Giovannoni's AlessiTab, which promises to be the ultimate kitchen device, has just been delayed from its scheduled release date of October to a vague point in November of this year. Worse still (at least for us who live in the United States), the home tablet will initially launch exclusively in Italy, and for the price of €399 (about $535), which is a full €99 more than what it was originally priced at. Still, ...

Sep

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Google Set To Expand Paid Android Market App Support Beyond Current Tally Of 14 Countries

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Apps/Games, News

Those of you following the official @AndroidDev account on twitter may have spotted a cryptic tweet sent out yesterday, urging developers to check their e-mail inboxes. Contained within was an e-mail with some exciting news: Google will be bringing access to paid applications to more countries. The when and the where have still yet to be determined, but Ireland bleedin' better be one of those countries.

Considering the fact that the Android Market is currently available in a pitiful 14 countries, listed below, any increase will make for a dramatic improvement. However, when you look at how many countries the ...

Sep

Original Motorola Milestone Comes To Alltel - 10 Months Too Late, $200 Too Much

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Alltel, Milestone, Motorola, News

Considering the fact that the original Motorola Milestone was launched almost a year ago alongside the original Droid, it may seem a bit ridiculous that the device has just now landed in Alltel's measly lineup of Android phones (the only other option is the HTC Hero). Again, that's the original Milestone, not its recently announced successor, which closely mimics the Droid 2, nor a version that, if nothing else, includes a processor upgrade or at least a camera upgrade of some sort, but the original, unmodified, device.

Even more unbelievably, Alltel is somehow expecting customers to cough up $199 ...

Sep

HTC Launches 4 New Promotional Videos For Desire HD, Desire Z, EVO 4G, And Droid Incredible

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Desire HD (Ace), Desire Z (Vision), Droid Incredible, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Videos

The new HTC Desire HD and Desire Z handsets are coming very soon, and we're incredibly excited about both of them (just take a look at that 5-second Fast Boot technology again).

In order to keep our excitement going, HTC just pushed out a new video of these bad boys flying up in the air, showing themselves off in various ways. I even got slight chills a bit at the end but I think it's mostly due to the epic music selection. Have a look (don't forget to notch up the quality to at least 720P):

Next up we ...

Sep

Battery Lives Of 8 Flagship Android Phones Tested And Compared - LCD Wins, AMOLED Loses, Droid X Takes Home The Crown

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Captivate, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid 2, Droid Incredible, Droid X (Shadow), Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Streak, Vibrant

Here’s something to get your teeth into. Over at LaptopMag, a whole host of Androids have been put through their paces in a grueling battery life endurance test. The goal was to keep the phones’ screens on while doing a moderate amount of processing, namely cyclically browsing a collection of web pages. Despite the supposed power savings afforded by AMOLED screens, the phones employing that screen technology fell quite a ways behind in comparison to the traditional LCD phones.

Why is that? AMOLED is supposed to only use up power on non-black pixels, right? Well, as LaptopMag points out, ...

Sep

Motorola Flipout Unofficially Official For AT&T, Now Available Exclusively On eBay

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in AT&T, Eclair 2.1, Flipout / Twist, Motorola

A version of the Motorola Flipout designed just for AT&T? Not possible, they say.

Ah, but what's this? According to a recent auction on eBay hosted by seller hotjdragon, who, mind you, has a satisfaction rating of 99.9%, this square little device is indeed real and is indeed selling for the off contract price of $388.88. Of course, it's always possible that AT&T will jack up this price in order to lock customers into a two-year service agreement, but, at least for now, here is what $388.88 gets you:

a "brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item [Motorola Flipout] in

...

Sep

[App Of The Week] Audio Manager Pro: Make Volume Adjustment In Android Simple, Tolerable, And Powerful

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

An Issue of Volume

From the day I eagerly removed the cellophane wrapping around the artful, Google-themed box which contained my Nexus One, I have had only one real gripe with Android: volume management. For a while I just dealt with it - the only way to adjust in-call volume was during a call, and other volume settings had to be controlled via the sound settings menu, or in their proper context.

It was a hassle. Reaching the settings aside, remembering if I had quieted my phone (unless it was silenced) or turned down the alarm volume was up to ...

Sep

Report: Android Police Visits Aurora Feint To Learn About OpenFeint And Its Vision About The Future Of Android Gaming

Posted by Ian G. Clifton in Apps/Games, News

OpenFeint

About a week ago, Aurora Feint, the team behind OpenFeint, publicly unveiled their Android SDK, allowing Android developers to easily incorporate things like leaderboards and achievements into their games. With that announcement came the promise of twenty new games, and we have already seen significant successes like MiniSquadron and Fruit Ninja jumping to the top of the Android charts. But now what? I flew down to the OpenFeint offices in San Francisco to find out first-hand.

Jet Car Stunts

Jason Citron, CEO and founder of Aurora Feint, showed off Jet Car Stunts (see video below) on ...

Sep

Samsung Posts An Official 9 Minute Galaxy Tab Hands-On Walkthrough Video

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Tab, News, Samsung, Videos

If you have 10 minutes to spare today, take a look at this new official Samsung video of the Galaxy Tab. It's professionally shot but this time instead of the marketing presentation that we saw before, we have an actual hands-on 9m20s walkthrough of:

the build
the UI
emailing (that 2-pane view looks nice!)
typing
using a calendar
editing documents
using the keyboard dock
calling (for non-US users)
video conferencing
reading books
listening to music
watching videos
utilizing Flash
HD streaming
using Android applications
GPS capabilities

Grab a coffee (if it's morning) or a beer (if it's night time or ...

Sep

Box.net App Lands In The Android Market

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, News

Last Updated: July 2nd, 2011

The official app for Box.net made its entrance into the Android market today, giving you a powerful alternative to Dropbox. While the free service offered by Box.net only offers half as much storage capacity as Dropbox (1GB), the Business offering ($15/mo) gives you a litany of awesome features that Dropbox just can't touch.

Official press release follows:

Palo Alto, Calif. – September 23, 2010 – Cloud content management provider Box.net today announced that its Android app is now available for free on the Android Marketplace. The Box for Android app makes it easy for users to access, share and manage

...

Sep

Apple, Motorola, And HTC Land Top Spots In JD Power Smartphone Satisfaction

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, Motorola, News, Off-Topic, Samsung

A bit off topic as there's nothing directly Android-related here, but interesting nonetheless: JD Power & Associates has released their findings for the Q2 2010 Wireless Smartphone Satisfaction Study, and Apple, Motorola, and HTC have grabbed the top spots (respectively), all landing above the industry average of 764 points (out of 1000).

Coming in below average? RIM (Blackberry), Samsung, Palm, and in last place, Nokia (note: not all companies are shown, just the big dogs). The results are still fairly close, though - Apple (at #1) scored 800, while Nokia (last, #7) scored 711 - certainly not a lot of ...

Sep

Modder's Column: The Hunt For The Best HTC EVO 4G ROM

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Editorials, Mods, Other Reviews, Reviews, Tips

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Modder's Column, formerly known as Modder’s Monday, is a column dedicated to rooting, hacking, and other forms of modifying Android and is written by Jaroslav Stekl, a man who spends his days coding, hacking, hiking, and of course, writing for Android Police.

As I mentioned in the last edition of Modder's Column, one of my favorite things about Android is how customizable it can be, even for novice users who would rather not spend all day hacking their phone.

Unfortunately, one thing Android does not allow you to do right out of the box is install custom ROMs, which allow ...

Sep

T-Mobile G2 Pre-Order Now Live For Existing T-Mobile Customers - $199.99, Order By October 4th For Delivery By The 6th

Posted by Brad Ganley in G2 (Vision), News

As promised and exactly on time, the pre-order page for the upcoming T-Mobile G2 has gone live on T-Mobile's website. Unfortunately, it looks like only existing T-Mobile customers are allowed to submit their preorders, with everyone else being left to dry for now.

The upcoming flagship Android phone will cost you $199.99 after a mail-in rebate on a contract or $499.99 without. That is inline with Best Buy's preorder deal from 2 weeks ago and $50 more than Radioshack's preorder, which is currently the best deal available.

Those in need of a refresher on this bad boy's specs can ...

Sep

Under The Radar: HTC’s DLNA Companion Box Lets You Wirelessly Stream To Your TV

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, News

In the excitement of HTC’s unveiling of the Desire HD and Desire Z in London, we missed out on this sweet little gadget. HTC announced plans to release a Media Link wireless DLNA adaptor in Q4 2010, as a companion piece to its continued expansion of the Sense experience.

Credit: SlashGear

What this little box purports to do is allow you to stream media from your DLNA-equipped phone to a suitable TV, irrespective of whether that TV has DLNA or not. There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot to the device: plug in the microUSB power cable, and connect ...

Sep

HTC Desire HD ROM Now Available For Droid Incredible, Desire, And EVO 4G

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Desire HD (Ace), Desire Z (Vision), Droid Incredible, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Sprint, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless

HTC's new version of Sense UI - which runs exclusively on the Desire Z and Desire HD (officially, at least) - is really shaping up to be an exception to the tradition of custom Android skins turning the operating system into a nightmare.

As of today, users of the HTC EVO 4G, the Droid Incredible, and the original GSM Desire, can thank the clever forum members over at xda-developers for five-second boot-up times they can call their own, along with all the other great features of HTC's latest skin. Unfortunately, there are still a few bugs to work out, ...