February 2011 Archives

Feb

After Numerous Delays, The HTC Thunderbolt May Finally Launch This Week

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, Rumors, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

Electronista picked up on a (now deleted) tweet from the infamous Verizon-affiliated tipster black_man_x that "Thunderbolts are go!!!!", suggesting that the launch of the HTC Thunderbolt is imminent.

This is just a short while after GizmoFusion reported that it had received word of Verizon planning on releasing the device "as early as next week" (which is now "this week").

It is still a little unclear when Verizon's first LTE phone will launch, however the most recent rumours suggest the in-store date to be March 10. Although it could also be the 3rd or 4th.

This is a sigh of ...

Feb

BlueputDroid Turns Your Android Phone Into A Mouse/Keyboard For Your PS3

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

If you have a Playstation 3 and have ever surfed the web or chatted with a gaming buddy, you may already be familiar with one of the most annoying text entry systems known to mankind. Pushing a directional pad (or joystick) to select letters may have been fun when entering the Super Macho Man code in Mike Tyson's Punchout, but this isn't 1987, and you expect an easier method of typing. Of course, Sony (and third party vendors) will be happy to sell you a pricey keyboard peripheral, but do you really want to buy yet another accessory for your ...

Feb

116

The Media Worships The iPad - But For How Much Longer?

Posted by Will Shanklin in Editorials, NOOKcolor (Encore), XOOM

You've seen it: a new Android tablet is featured on some mainstream media's program or website, and you know it's coming, but you still can't help but clench your sphincter muscles just a little when you hear it...

Will it be an iPad killer?
Samsung's attempt to compete with the iPad...
The latest inferior and insignificant non-Apple offering that we're forced to cover...

Can't they see that this is like describing Colin Firth as a wanna-be Tom Cruise? After a while, you begin to wonder if these journalists have actually used an Android tablet. Do they even know what it ...

Feb

Motorola XOOM Gets Overclocked By SetCPU To 1.5GHz, Bends Space-Time

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Dev, Mods, News, Videos, XOOM

You thought 1.2GHz was fast? That was just the beginning. The developer of the extremely popular SetCPU app has managed to get a 50% clock speed increase out of the XOOM's dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2, bumping it up to a screaming 1.5GHz. Now, this is sort of like attaching a very large turbo to your four-cylinder hot hatch - that is, your device life may be shortened a little if you're constantly pushing it to the limits. Oh, and it might burn a hole in your pants. But 1.5GHz is an impressive figure regardless, and shows just how ...

Feb

[Weekend (Non-)Poll] What Are Your Three Favorite Apps?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Can The Amazon Appstore Succeed Against The Android Market?

I'm taking a deceptive turn with this weekend's poll, and... well, not polling. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. Rather than have the usual pick-an-option-and-hit-vote poll, I'm doing a vocal poll via the comments.

Here's the deal: We'd like to know what your three favorite non-Google apps are. If it's relevant, be sure to include details (as needed) such as your device, whether you're rooted, or why the app is your favorite. What you don't need to ...

Feb

That Was Quick: The Motorola Atrix 4G Now Has Its First Custom ROM

Posted by Will Shanklin in Atrix 4G (Olympus), Mods, News

If you're among the early adopters of Motorola's Atrix 4G, you can now install a custom ROM that may give you more flexibility with your snazzy new phone. Developer Design Gears' Adeo ROM is now available for download. While this may not be a ROM that will show any immediately mind-blowing changes to the typical end user, it gives you a reboot option, and more importantly, it's deodexed, which is an important first step that will allow developers and advanced users greater power to modify and replace apps APK files.

While one can install the ROM whether rooted or not, ...

Feb

Quick How To & Hands-On: Get The Stunning Honeycomb Boot Animation On Your Rooted Android Device

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Mods, News

Last night, I spotted a tweet from simms22 linking to a video of the Honeycomb boot animation on a CM7ed Nexus S. This morning I awoke to a tweet from him with a link to download it. Update: about an hour ago, simms notified me that the original animation is the work of XDA member zul8er, and tnpapadakos then released an updated (fixed) version.

^{I think this is the first time I've ever seen his pretend pervertedness actually pan out.}

And indeed, sexy it is. For those who missed the boot animation the first go-round, we were impressed the ...

Feb

Public Beta Of FullHDMI Released, Lets You Mirror Your EVO's Screen On Your HDTV

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Mods, Sprint

Fellow EVO 4G owners, were you envious when Sony Ericsson demoed the Xperia arc's full HDMI capabilities? Fear not - once again, the developer community has come to the rescue!

Android Central Forums user Orrebmas has developed a "limited time" public beta of FullHDMI, an app that lets you output any content on your EVO's display to your HDTV. Yep, that means you can finally get your Angry Birds on in full, 50-inch mode.

Unfortunately, there are a few caveats. First, simply installing an APK file isn't enough; to get FullHDMI up and running, you'll also need to ...

Feb

Thumb Keyboard Is An Epic Win For Tablet Typing [Hands-On]

Posted by Will Shanklin in App Reviews, Applications, Galaxy Tab, NOOKcolor (Encore), Reviews, Tips, XOOM

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you caught our review of Thumb Keyboard last month, you'll know the gist of this clever keyboard app that aims to make two-thumbed typing a breeze. It's a novel (and potentially very useful) tool for a phone, but with recent updates that have accentuated the tablet layouts, this has now become my keyboard of choice on large tablet screens, and is a potential game-changer in the new slate arena.

On phones, trace keyboards like Swype and SlideIt are extremely hard to beat in the speed department (world texting records seem to be broken on a regular basis with ...

Feb

Did EA Just Diss Verizon Users Again? Bejeweled 2 Now On Sale For $0.99, Unless You're On Verizon ($2.99)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

A couple of weeks ago, EA released Bejeweled 2 to the Android Market, and many Bejeweled fans jumped on it like bees on honey. Most found the game in the Market just fine for $2.99, but others were stumped when they saw a whopping $7.99 price tag.

Those others were all Verizon customers, as we found out after digging in, because apparently EA decided to release 2 separate, but otherwise exactly identical versions of the game - one for VZW customers and one for everyone else.

After being called out by us and a few other blogs, EA came ...