October 2011 Archives

Oct

CyanogenMod 7.1 Nightlies Expanded To A Slew Of Devices, Including AT&T's Samsung Galaxy SII, Motorola Atrix 4G, Optimus Black, And Tons Of Xperias

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Atrix 4G (Olympus), Dev, Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12), Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone), Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

It looks like the Cyanogenmod team, in a continued effort to bring continually-updated Gingerbread goodness to as many devices as possible, have brought nightlies to a new crop of handsets, including AT&T's variant of the Samsung Galaxy SII, the Motorola Atrix, LG's Optimus Black and a handful of Sony devices including the Xperia X10, Play, Arc (X12), X10 mini, ST18i, and about five others.

Update: Here are some of the popular device/codename mappings (mapping these took a significant and unnecessary amount of time. This is exactly why Artem posted this today):

AT&T Galaxy S II - galaxys2att

...

Oct

[Download] We'll See Your Nyandroid Logcat, And Raise You A Boot Animation

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Mods, Off-Topic

You may remember last month, when some developers cheekily requested that Android's logcat icon be replaced with an image of the famed nyan cat. You may also remember that their request was granted, boosting some users' productivity by up to "200%." Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, we've got something even better:

That's right, a nyandroid boot animation. Finally, you can see Andy rocketing through the galaxy, leaving a trail of rainbows behind, each and every time you switch on your device. Not sure how to install custom boot animations? Check out our guide before grabbing the download below.

Download: ...

Oct

Timeline Graphic: US Android Phone Releases - We're Definitely Moving Faster, But How Fast Is Too Fast?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

There's been some discussion of late that, perhaps, Android phone manufacturers are iterating handsets at a pace which is detrimental to product polish and subsequent software support. In fact, a couple of days ago I took a look at the state of Android phones on US carriers with a few simple charts.

I also promised to write another post looking at how quickly, as opposed to how prolifically, Android handsets are moving in the US marketplace. I decided to look at two carriers - T-Mobile and Verizon. In the interest of cleaning up the timelines, I decided not to include ...

Oct

What I Learned About Sprint's Past And Current Data Problems As Well As Future Upgrade Plans After Reaching Out To CEO Dan Hesse

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in 4G, News, Sprint

Last Updated: January 13th, 2012

Sprint has network problems. Major problems. And they've gotten a lot worse lately. Really, really bad. Not all areas are affected - and in fact some have improved already, but more and more areas are getting so bad that Sprint's 3G data is completely unusable there, especially since the introduction of the iPhone. Troubleshooting and update my phone's "profile" and PRL didn't help, as evident from the screenshot #2 you see below.

Earlier this week I contacted Sprint's customer service, followed by an email to an executive and CEO Dan Hesse himself (or whoever fields his emails). The ...

Oct

[Weekend Poll] Is Gaming On Android Lackluster?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Games, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see What Ice Cream Sandwich Feature/Improvement Are You Most Excited About?

A few days ago, a post by Industry Gamers titled "GTA Developer Blasts Mobile Gaming for Being Focused on Money Over Quality" sparked quite a debate between Artem and me. We are both fairly old-school gamers, with a history of playing games via consoles and PCs since childhood. Despite both of us being long-time gamers, we had utterly different opinions on the current Android gaming situation.

See, Artem was of the opinion that gaming on ...

Oct

MadFinger Games Hard At Work On Multiplayer For Shadowgun, Taking Suggestions From Players

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games, News

Shadowgun, a game we recently reviewed, is a Tegra-straining, visually impressive, polished action game that has been quickly garnering attention since it was announced. Looking to take players' experience over the top, MadFinger Games opened a thread on their own forums earlier this month, indicating that they were working hard on multiplayer capabilities for Shadowgun, asking for users' "wishes, opinions, or ideas."

Shadowgun is already a great experience, and at the low price of $4.99 US, it's an amazing value. I trust that MadFinger will deliver a multiplayer experience that lives up to the name Shadowgun has already ...

Oct

[Deal Alert] Adorama Offering 8GB 1GHz And 16GB 1.5GHz Archos 80 G9 Dual-Core Tablets For $250 Each (That's $50 And $80 Off, Respectively)

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Deals, Tablets

Adorama, one of the more popular online purveyors of photo equipment (and other electronics), are offering a couple of awesome deals on Archos' 80 G9 tablets, selling the dual-core 1GHz 8GB model, as well as its 1.5GHz, 16GB counterpart for $250 each. Of course, since the 1.5GHz model was delayed, your purchase will essentially count as a pre-order, but $250 for this power-packed tablet is practically a steal, taking a cool $80 off the original price tag.

While they may be relatively inexpensive, both Archos 80 G9 tablets have a lot to offer. Here are some of their specs:...

Oct

ice-cream-sandwich-launch-announcement-confirmed-by-android-developers-youtube-channel

[Getting To Know Android 4.0, Part 3] YouTube Grows Up

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Features, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Last Updated: November 11th, 2011

YouTube is the ugly duckling of the Gapps family. That's right, I said it.

The 100% black design and horrible gradients make it look like a 13 year old boy's geocities page. It certainly doesn't look like it's from a professional company. It's only saving grace it that, since it's a video app, you aren't subjected to the UI that often when you are using at it. Thankfully, with the arrival of Ice Cream Sandwich, amateur hour is over.

You should know the drill by now. We're picking apart Ice Cream Sandwich and comparing it to the previous phone version ...

Oct

Rumor: Barnes And Noble Getting Ready For The Next NOOK On November 7th

Posted by David Ruddock in Barnes & Noble

According to The Digital Reader (confirmed by The Wall Street Journal), Barnes and Noble stores are expanding their NOOK areas in retail stores for the holidays, and likely in time for the next generation of NOOK.

Digital Reader claims that on November 7, B&N will make an announcement regarding the NOOK line of products, and that the expansion of the NOOK Boutique in retail locations is being undertaken to prepare for the arrival of the new Android-powered color eReader.

Many have speculated that B&N would unveil a new NOOK before the holiday season here in the U.S., as the ...

Oct

Chart: Are There Really Too Many Android Phones? That Depends On How You Look At It

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

After reading a couple of great pieces on Droid-life about how Android manufacturers seem to be moving at breakneck pace to advance hardware and iterate handsets like crazy, I had an idea - let's visualize it in different ways. First, we'll start with a pretty basic comparison, showing the US's four major carriers and the number of Android devices they currently offer.