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As the saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way - and there's always a will among the guys (and gals) at XDA-Devs. This time around, it's booting Ubuntu on the Samsung Galaxy Tab; unfortunately, though, it's not without a fair number of kinks at this point.
Millennial Media has released their Mobile Mix for October, and at first sight, the results are fairly impressive. Before diving in, though, it's important to note that the statistics are based on ad clicks, rather than a population sample. However, that doesn't mean they don't help express the overall trends, so with that in mind, let's take a quick look at the highlights.
We have good news and bad news (x2), world. The good: the first CM6.1 build for the Samsung Galaxy S has been released. The first (and worst) bit of bad news: at this point, it looks like it's for the GT-i9000 only, and not the US versions of the SGS (though I'm no dev, so I'm not positive). The other bad news: this is apparently a very bug-laden release ("Holy crap, it's full of BUGS!").
What a nice surprise to come home to: Samsung was kind enough to send us the T-Mobile variant of the Galaxy Tab, and boy, is this thing beautiful. So far, I've only had about 30 minutes to play with it - just enough time to setup my email and preferences, do a little web browsing, and, naturally, play a game of Angry Birds (or 5... you know how it is).
Android 2.1 Update For T-Mobile Garminfone Available For Manual Installation; All 10 Owners Ecstatic
Granted, this particular bit of news is only valuable to the (very) small crowd of people who purchased the T-Mobile Garminfone, but it's nice to hear nonetheless. The good news: Garmin has released an update to Android 2.1 (Éclair). The bad: it's a manual update.
It's definitely starting to feel like holiday season is winding up - a ton of devices that we've seen in the pipeline previously are now making it to market at long last. Let's take a look:
Engadget - whose record on these things is usually among the best in the business - seems to have pulled the trigger on one that's pretty obviously fake. Check it out:
Looks like the Rhapsody app has just dropped on the market, only... you can't find it by searching. However, barcode scanners work, so we're not really sure what's going on. The app itself seems to feature, well, just about what you'd expect:
This one is definitely, definitely, firmly in the rumor bin, folks - and if history teaches us anything, it's that in the Android community rumors tend to stick to the lines of "Somebody tells you something somewhat ridiculous, but plausible. Post. Watch it spread like wildfire." Still, sometimes we get things right, too, and with that in mind, I present to you the Dell Opus One.
Last night on the Android Developers blog, Tim Bray recapped a few improvements that have come to the Android Market since Froyo landed. Most of them (five out of the six) are old news by now, but the sixth is one we haven't heard about before:
Hot on the heels of this morning's full and permanent G2 and Desire Z root, XDA-Devs members (apparently headed by grankin01) have released a similarly full and permanent root for the T-Mobile myTouch 4G. In fact, the method is very nearly the same, in grankin's words:
Verizon's really steamrolling along with the Android train, aren't they? In addition to last night's official announcement of the Samsung Continuum, the Motorola Droid Pro and Droid 2 Global are now both up for pre-order. Just as we'd heard, the D2G looks to be $200 after rebates, while the DP, as announced yesterday, will clock in at $180 (both with a new contract).
Right on cue, Verizon and Samsung have announced the Samsung Continuum, the newest member of the Galaxy S line of devices. Surprisingly, it looks like all the rumors had everything dead on (a rarity in the Android community). The details:
Looks like Google is hitting roadblocks at every turn with their eponymous TV hardware - which is really a shame, given just how much potential it seems to have. A few weeks ago, the major networks decided to start blocking Google TVs from accessing their content, whether it was via their proprietary feeds (i.e. ABC.com) or directly through Hulu. Just about the only method of streaming left was Fancast (which actually backdoors content from Hulu). But no more: the door has been shut, with few options left for users.
Looks like the team at MIUI hasn't been resting on its laurels after releasing its insanely popular MIUI ROM - they've recently released Charming Browser for Android. Just like the ROM, the browser was initially released in Chinese. Luckily, XDA-Developers member jpsiemer immediately jumped on it and translated it to English.
Our good friends at Wirefly released a video a few days ago showing a browser speed test between the new T-Mobile myTouch 4G and Apple's iPhone 4. The results added another win for the Android crowd, as the myTouch 4G bested the iPhone 4 in both tests.
Small bit of news, but useful for those of us firmly entrenched in the Android fan club: Google has released an official Android skin for Gmail. Changes are light - mainly consisting of light gray circuits on a white background, and an infusion of green for highlights.
Engadget's landed a classic Blurrycam shot of Verizon's internal system showing the prices for a handful of current and upcoming devices. Namely, the Motorola Droid Pro, and the still-unofficial Droid 2 Global and Samsung Continuum.
The Motorola Droid 2 Global is really turning out to be the worst-kept secret since the Bay of Pigs invasion, isn't it? We've been hearing inklings of it since mid-September, including rumors that the CPU would be clocked at 1.2 GHz.