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XDA member and SetCPU developer coolbho3000 has managed to take an already great (and quick) device, and made it a little better by overclocking it to 1.5GHz. It may not be the fastest overclock we've seen in raw hertz, but it is the fastest we've seen in terms of actual computing power. Remember when the XOOM was overclocked to 1.5GHz? It snagged a 2854 in Quadrant. The SGSII: 4062.
Google just announced during the keynote presentation that Honeycomb is officially being updated to Android 3.1. The update will begin rolling out today for owners of the Verizon Motorola XOOM 3G - no word yet on when the WiFi model and other 3.0-rockin' tablets will receive the update, though.
Artem's on the floor at Google I/O at the moment, but he's busy taking pictures and popping out highlights over Twitter. While he's busy with that, here are some highlights (via the Livestream).
We've all griped about Facebook for Android before, and rightly so. The app still trails the functionality of its iOS counterpart, and has had a string of compatibility issues. Just last week, Joe Hewitt - one of the developers of Facebook for Android - left the company. It appears that things are already being shaken up; the Facebook for Android team has taken to Andreddit to ask how they can make the app better.
One neat feature of BlackBerrys is that when you put the phone in its case, the screen automatically shuts off. The effect is only part novelty; after all, by shutting the screen off sooner, you're saving battery (although in all honesty, it's doubtful you're saving that much battery). Developer Fahrbot Mobile has devised a solution for Android that "uses a combination of sensors to control the sleep state and screen lock of any device... at the moment, it uses the proximity sensor, light sensor and accelerometer."
Analyst Egle Mikalajunaite of research2guidance has modeled the growth of the Android Market and Apple App Store, and based on his predictions, the former will overtake the latter in August of this year. While we're generally pretty weary of these sort of predictions, the short-term nature certainly makes this much more plausible.
Judging by the comments in the post where Brad described his experiences with the Sprint + Google Voice integration after receiving his beta invite a few weeks ago, many peoples interest was piqued. Luckily, the wait is over for those of us who weren't fortunate enough to get an early invite to the program - they've now opened the doors for the rest of us.
Last weekend, a developer (and redditor) posted on Andreddit to promote his new game, Clever Contraptions. He said he was "inspired by the classic game 'the incredible machine' [sic]" - a promise that triggered my nostalgia and prompted me to download it immediately. In the days since, I've managed to spend a bit of time with the game, and I have to admit I've come away pleased, despite a few minor niggles.
I awoke this morning to the UPS delivery guy dropping off a package at my house; lo and behold, it was a DROID Incredible 2 (Dinc2) review unit. As an EVO owner, I'm fairly familiar with what has fast become HTC's modus operandi - high quality, good price, and higher-end specs. With that in mind, I was looking forward to my time with the Dinc2, and tore into the box immediately (I didn't even put a shirt on first... sorry, UPS guy).
It looks like Facebook is continuing the juggling act with their Android app, as they have fixed a few bugs and added a few new features with the latest update. Here, I've got the short list for you:
Next time you want to purchase a game from Gameloft, you may want to pause and reconsider: their official policy is to tie app purchases to the device and phone number - and it's strictly enforced. We received an email from a peeved Gameloft customer who found this out the hard way, and we'd hate to see anyone else encounter the same (frankly ridiculous) issue.
Our pal Andrew Schillinger - the "lead code monkey" (no, seriously) at AdultSwim.com - pinged us a few hours ago to let us know that Adult Swim has released its first Android app/game, and it's everything we'd expect from AS. It's called Robot Unicorn Attack, and it takes you though the dream world of a robot unicorn.
If you're a frequent reader, you may remember hearing about the Business Insider Smartphone Survey, which we called out for its biased title and questions. As promised, they have posted the results, and much as we expected, Android absolutely dominated.
, the LG Optimus 2X is finally available in the States courtesy of T-Mobile, who is dubbing it the T-Mobile G2x. At $250 less a $50 mail-in-rebate, the phone is largely in-line with the pricing for other flagship devices, and with all that horsepower inside, seems fairly reasonable.
On their earnings call today, Google revealed some impressive stats about Android, courtesy of Jeff Huber, Senior VP of Commerce and Local. There were three notable facts, in particular: there have been over 3 billion Android apps installed, downloads of Android apps are up 50% in the last quarter, and 350,000 Android devices are being activated per day. Whoa, whoa, and whoa.
Over the weekend, we posted about a pant-crappingly stupid (and biased) survey posted by Silicon Alley Insider called "WHY WOULD ANYONE EVER BUY AN ANDROID PHONE? Take Our Smartphone Survey And Tell Us!" A few dozen of you posted in the comments to criticize just how biased SAI was with the survey, and a large number of you followed through to take it.
It's been a few weeks since the deluge of Gingerbread builds leaked on March 27 (Droid X, Droid 2, Galaxy S i9000), but now another big dog is looking to join the party: a test Android 2.3 ROM for the HTC EVO has leaked and been posted to the XDA forums. A ton of people have taken the bait, with the thread already checking in at over 73 pages long - and it's only been up for about 6 hours.