Aaron Gingrich - 43/72 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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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Jan

Makes Sense: Li-Ion Batteries Have Overcharge Protection Chip Inside

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Sprint

Certainly makes sense (get it?), doesn't it. Nearly every EVO owner I know has, at some point or another, complained about the fact that their battery life drops about 5-10% as soon as they unplug it. Well, it turns out that's because of there's an overcharge protection chip inside Li-Ion batteries.

XDA user willy900wonka decided to tear his extended EVO battery apart, and lo and behold:

What I found was that a 8205 chip is used to provide protection and prevent over charging and over-discharging. Here is a quote from a google search.

S-8205A/B Series Applications-Optimized-Battery-Protection Circuits.
All contained voltage detectors are of high precision between 15mV and 100mV depending on the function.

Jan

Distimo Pegs Android Market At 130,000 Apps - A (Nearly) Six-Fold Increase Year-Over-Year

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, Games, News

App store analytics company Distimo has released a report reviewing the changes in the Apple, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia app stores in 2010, and the results are impressive for all four. To highlight a few points from the 28 page report:

The Apple App Store is still by far the largest, with roughly 300,000 apps. The Android Market is second at 130,000, the Nokia Ovi Store checks in at 25,000, and the BlackBerry App World manages a respectable 18,000.
In all 4 stores, free app growth outpaced that of paid apps. The App Store doubled in size, while the Market experienced nearly six-fold growth.

Jan

Android Soon To Be Used By Automotive Chip Tuners As Tuning Device/Carputer

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Applications, News, Off-Topic

It's not unheard of for tuners to throw a small PC into a car (commonly called a "carputer" in the industry). It's a lot less common for Android to appear in cars, though it does happen - GM has considered using it to power OnStar and has a Volt app, while the Roewe 350 rocks Android in a pretty hardcore way. We've yet to hear of aftermarket tuners taking advantage of Android - until now, that is. Chip tuner Superchips has released what appears to be custom software built on Android and running on the Archos 43.

The results are impressive, especially considering this is the first we're seeing of Android making its way into a device like this.

Jan

Skype To Buy Qik For A Cool $150 Million

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Word around the web is that Skype is in the process of purchasing Qik for a cool $150 million. While not expected, the deal isn't exactly surprising, either: Skype is already a major player in the internet phone business, and in 2010, Qik substantially expanded its presence in mobile video calling and streaming. In fact, 2010 was huge for Qik: they expanded their customer base from 600,000 to 5 million users - roughly an eight-fold increase.

Clearly, the two businesses are extremely similar: Skype users can already make voice/video calls using Skype on various platforms, and again, Qik now has a substantial footprint in mobile video.

Jan

T-Mobile & Dell Officially Announce Dell Streak 7: First T-Mobile 4G Tablet, Coming Soon

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Dell, Froyo 2.2, News, Streak 7, T-Mobile

Looks like T-Mobile's not planning on resting on its laurels in the 4G tablet wars: they've just officially announced the Dell Streak 7 will be coming in the following weeks. At the same time, they're also promising to increase 4G speeds in the coming year, aiming to double download speeds. Impressive, especially considering just how far behind T-Mobile was in coverage just a few short years ago.

^{Extra-large image for an extra-sexy tablet.}

The Streak 7 is an absolutely stunning tablet (from the looks of it), and packs some damn fine specs:

7" WVGA screen (Gorilla Glass)
1 GHz Tegra 2 dual-core CPU
Android 2.2 (*facepalm*) with Market support
5 MP camera around back, 1.3 MP front-facing camera (with Qik)
16 GB memory out of the box
SWYPE

Notably, the tablet will run Froyo, rather than Gingerbread or Honeycomb.

Jan

LG Optimus 2X Pitted Against iPhone 4 In An Unscientific Browser Test, Comes Out Looking Good

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, LG, Optimus 2X (Star, p990), Videos

PhoneArena has stumbled across a brief YouTube video that pits the browsers of the upcoming LG Optimus 2X and iPhone 4 against each other. Unfortunately, there are few (read: no) details available on how the test was run, and there are only two "trials" - hardly scientific, but hey, it's something, right?

As you can see, the 2X manages an impressive lead, even managing to pull up Flash-laden Yahoo in significantly less time than the iPhone 4. It's not exactly clear why the 2X is pulling such a big lead, either - though many people are contributing it to the stellar dual-core Tegra 2, and perhaps rightfully so.

Jan

Sprint Officially Announces HTC EVO Shift 4G: Available January 9 For $150

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in EVO Shift 4G (Speedy), HTC, News, Sprint, Videos

Sprint's just sent out the official press release announcing the HTC EVO Shift 4G, and it looks like just about everything we've heard is true - right down to the price. Need a refresher on what this baby EVO is packin'?

Android 2.2
3.6" 480x800 screen
5 MP camera
720p camcorder
2GB microSD card (support for up to 32GB)
WiFi
800 MHz CPU (likely the same one found in the G2)
1 GB ROM
512 MB RAM
$150 with 2 year contract, after $100 MIR

^{EVO Shift 4G: Now with 100% more keyboard!}

Our friends over at Wirefly have had the chance to give the Shift a 10 minute video review.

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2010, And A Look Forward To 2011

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Editorials, News

Looking Back: Andy Conquers The World (And Then Some)

What a whirlwind year for Android. Although the T-Mobile G1 - the first Android handset - dropped way back in October of 2008, it arguably took until 2010 for Android to become feasible for the mainstream. In fact, when the Nexus One was released in early January, it was widely hailed as being the first true Android competitor to the iPhone, in no small part due to the advancements made with Éclair.

From there, Android took off: Eric Schmidt announced in May that over 100,000 Android handsets were being activated daily. By June, the number was up to 160,000.

Jan

Man Uses Geek Wizardry, Magic To Use HTC EVO 4G As Garage Door Opener

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Off-Topic

In an impressive display of nerdery, XDA member JsChiSurf (who you may remember as the guy behind the re-mapped EVO buttons and a shout-out in Fresh 3.5) has used a host of tools and tricks to create an app that allows him to use his EVO as a garage door opener. Check out the video below (it's on the longer side at nearly 4 minutes, but it's got all the details).

In short, he connects an old Linux server (which was already running in his garage) to a serial relay controller, which is in turn connected to his garage door, to do the trick.

Jan

Solar Wind: An Amazing, Trippy Live Wallpaper

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Many Android owners seem to have a love/hate relationship with live wallpapers - no matter how stunning they are, they generally zap performance and battery life too much to be used for long. Here's one that might work on both sides of the coin: meet Solar Wind LWP.

As you can see, it's... well, it's a bit hard to describe. It mainly consists of multi-colored strings of dots swirling around. A video can do it better justice: