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Aaron Gingrich

Aaron is a geek who has always had a passion for technology. When not working or writing, he can be found spending time with his family, playing a game, or watching a movie.

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May

Has Samsung Learned? Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Will Ship With Android 3.1

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Galaxy Tab 10.1, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Could Samsung have learned a lesson from the Galaxy S Froyo update shenanigans? The company will be shipping their hottest new device, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, with Honeycomb 3.1 rather than 3.0. No shipping with out-of-date software here - and pretty speedy turnaround, given that Honeycomb 3.1 probably hasn't been available to manufacturers for too long. Then again, the 10.1 doesn't have TouchWiz yet and won't until after release, so there was no custom UI to slow the update.

The news comes from a post on Samsung's Facebook:

And indeed, all official descriptions now show Honeycomb 3.1 rather than 3.0.

May

[Deal Alert] Refurb Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" 16GB WiFi/3G On Woot For $265 Shipped

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Deals, Galaxy Tab, News

The O.G. Samsung Galaxy Tab (7") may not pack quite the same horsepower as the Viewsonic gTab, but it's still a damn fine piece of kit, and today Woot is selling it for just $260 + $5 for shipping. Even better, it's the 16GB Sprint 3G + WiFi model, meaning those of you who want to sign up for a service plan can do so. The catch: it's a refurbished model.

A refresher on the Galaxy Tab's vitals:

7-inch 1024×600 display
1GHz Hummingbird processor
3.2MP rear camera
Front-facing camera
4000mAh battery
Android 2.2 FroYo with TouchWiz UI
16GB storage
3G/WiFi

Sound like a bargain to you?

May

Patch Enables Netflix App On Rooted HTC Thunderbolts Running Gingerbread ROMs

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

When we posted on the work-around for enabling the Netflix app on unsupported devices, more than a few of you weren't thrilled to hear that the fix didn't work on the Thunderbolt. We knew a fix would come eventually, and now we're happy to report that the developer community has delivered; they've found a way to get the Netflix app working on the Thunderbolt. Unfortunately, there is a bit of bad news, too: it only works on devices that are rooted and running a Gingerbread ROM.

If you fit that criteria, the instructions are pretty damn simple. As always, its highly recommended that you fun a Nandroid backup beforehand in case anything goes awry.

May

[Deal Alert] Verizon Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY On Sale For $100 For New Accounts, $150 For Upgrades

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Deals, Verizon Wireless, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

The ~~Playstation phone~~ Xperia PLAY may not have quite hit store shelves yet, but it has been up for pre-order for a few days now. Amazon and Wirefly are both stepping up their game in an attempt to beat Verizon's price of $200 with contract, though, and have discounted prices accordingly. Specifically, Amazon has dropped the price for new accounts to just $100, and upgrades are $150. Wirefly has pegged both prices at $150, but hopefully they reflect Amazon's lower price in order to stay competitive. Then again, Wirefly includes a $25 Android Market Card and free backup service for life.

May

[Unboxing & Initial Hands-On] Motorola Droid X2: Twice The Cores, Same Great Taste

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid X2, News, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

The Motorola Droid X2 has only been out for a day now - and still can't be purchased via Verizon brick-and-mortars yet- but we've already managed to land one for review. I haven't had much time with it, but I do have some unboxing and hands-on pictures to go along with the initial impressions.

I'm not going to run through the unboxing in words because... well, it's me taking something out of a box.

The first impression: it feels light. Not quite as light as the Droid Incredible 2 (4.78oz), but at 5.47oz it's certainly lighter than my daily ~~brick~~driver EVO (6oz.).

May

[Weekend Poll] I/O 2011 Aftermath & Recap: What Has You Most Excited?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Applications, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see How Important Will Customization Be In Determining Your Next Android Purchase?

Google I/O 2011 is all wrapped up, and boy was it eventful. In case you missed them the first go-round, we provided a handy-dandy list (with videos embedded) of the keynotes and Android sessions from both the first and second day. The first keynote, especially, was really quite fascinating and provided a good review of where Android is headed. But at 55 minutes, it's probably a bit much to ask people to watch something quite that long (alternatively, you can read my on-the-fly notes).

May

[Review] HTC DROID Incredible 2: The Evolution Of A Great Device

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Is the HTC DROID Incredible 2 a groundbreaking phone? Hardly. With the Incredible 2, HTC has simply taken an already great handset and refreshed the hardware. The result is a phone that's evolutionary rather than revolutionary - but as it turns out, that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's actually quite a good thing - the DInc2 is a great device, and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to recommend it to friends or family.

At A Glance

As I've already said, the DInc2 is no record breaker on paper; it has but one core and lacks 4G LTE connectivity.

May

Nerd Out Like A Boss With This Rotating Wireframe Hypercube Boot Animation

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, News

What you see there is a tesseract. In case you're not quite sure what that is (I wasn't), the short definition is "the four-dimensional analogue of a cube." Or, to be more specific (for those of you as nerdy as I):

Four-dimensional hypercube; its vertices are (+/-1, +/-1, +/-1, +/-1). It is a polychoron formed from eight equal cube cells that are perpendicular to each other at their faces. It is the tetraspace analog to the square in planespace and the cube in realmspace. (source)

A commonly-used name for a four-dimensional hypercube. A tesseract has 16 corners, 32 edges, 24 squares, and 8 cubes.

May

Good News, Everyone: Trick The Netflix App Into Thinking Your Rooted Device Is Supported

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, News

When he covered the official release of the Netflix app earlier today, Cameron said, "If your device didn’t make the cut, though, I wouldn’t sweat it too hard – you know how resourceful the Android community can be." Well, the app hasn't even been out for a day yet, and already there's a way to get it running on non-supported devices. The only caveat is that you must be rooted. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work on the Thunderbolt.

So how's it done? Well, the instructions are actually fairly straightforward, and come courtesy of tipster/redditor natemckn:

Root is required.

May

[Updated: Download Link Added] HTC Thunderbolt Software Update Rolling Out Now, Brings Improved 3G Connectivity And Minor Bugfixes

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Word via DroidLife's tipsters is that an update for the HTC Thunderbolt is rolling out now. As this just started happening, details are a bit light at the moment, but Kellex surmises that this is the same update we heard about a few weeks ago, and we're inclined to agree.

Assuming this update is an improved version of the one we heard about a few weeks ago, it will be packin':

We're impatiently awaiting details from our guy Justin of TeamAndIRC - in case you haven't heard, he's pretty close to ground zero of the Thunderbolt modding gang, and he's had his hands on various iterations of this update for a few weeks now.