Aaron Gingrich - 47/72 - 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.

Follow @angingrich

Dec

Analyst Says 80% Of Verizon Smartphones Sold Run Android, Coincides With Fall In Blackberry Sales

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

ITG Investment Research analyst Matthew Goodmam has come out with some figures for smartphone sales on Verizon. Perhaps most shocking is seeing just how far Research In Motion (RIM) has fallen - BlackBerry's share has fallen from over 90% of smartphone sales in late 2009 to less than 20% today. Before you get carried away with that drop, though, there are a few factors to consider that may make the numbers just a little less spectacular.

The first consideration is that smartphone sales are increasing hand-over-fist as a percentage of sales - people are switching from their dumbphones to smartphone in spades.

Dec

Angry Birds Update Coming, Bringing In-App Purchases, Ad-Free Version

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Games, News

Rovio has revealed some details on upcoming changes to Angry Birds, and it sounds like the insanely popular game is about to get even better. First and foremost, they'll be implementing an in-app payment system called "Bad Piggy Bank." From the sound of things, it will be quite the elegant system - any purchases will be billed straight to your carrier, rather than to your Google Checkout account or credit card.

Coming with in-app purchases: the ability to buy the Mighty Eagle, which wipes out an entire level. Purchasing the eagle unlocks it permanently, but they'll limit use to just once per 24 hours - presumably to prevent people from beating the game by using the eagle for every level.

Dec

Viewsonic G Tablet Running Tegra 2 Benchmarked Against Competition, Comes Out Looking Good

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in gTablet (SMB-A1002), News, Viewsonic

Although we already knew it had some serious potential, AnandTech has pitted the Viewsonic G (running nVidia's hot Tegra 2 dual-core mobile CPU) against a bevy of other mobile CPUs. The competition: three devices utilizing the Snapdragon (Nexus One, G2, and EVO), the Hummingbird found in the Galaxy Tab, the TI OMAP found in the Droid 2, and the Apple A4 from the iPhone 4. The results: the Viewsonic G tablet and its Tegra 2 CPU pulled heavy wins in 4 out of the 6 tests.

The CPU benchmark results were quite impressive, with results ranging from 30-100% better than the competition in all but Linpack, where the tablet hit 37.324 MFLOPS versus the 38.122 of the Nexus One.

Dec

Google Starting Near Field Communication (NFC) Push In Portland, Oregon

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju)

Wondering how and when that newfangled Near Field Communication (NFC) techology in the Nexus S will be put to good use? Thanks to a new post on the Google Mobile Blog, we now know where the Goog is starting off: businesses. Specifically, they're looking to help businesses use the nifty tech to share some info about themselves to curious people passing by.

How does it work? Google is sending out kits, complete with window decals, to businesses around Portland. The businesses can set up the kit, set up an info page on Google Places, and slap the decal on the window; if somebody is walking by and is curious about a business, the idea is that they can just briefly hold their phone up to the decal and additional information about the establishment will be pulled up on the phone.

Dec

OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon Deluxe) Ported To Android, Available In Market

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Games, News

Anyone who grew up in the 90's may remember Transport Tycoon - a game similar to Sim City 2000 and Roller Coaster Tycoon (Chris Sawyer, who created TTC, also created RCT). The objective of the game is fairly simple by today's standards: control a transport company to make more profit than your rivals. Fans of the original should be happy to hear that the OpenTTD project has been ported to Android, and this time around, there's even multiplayer support.

The bad news is that it's still an early release, so it's not without kinks. A fair number of users can't get the app to run at all, and some users have also had trouble getting sound to work.

Dec

MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien Releases Gingerbread Launcher For Android 2.2, Now Available In Market

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Our (OK, mainly Brian's) man Paul O'Brien of MoDaCo has been hard at work porting the Gingerbread launcher to Froyo (Android 2.2). What's different? Well, frankly... not a lot.

The major differences are that there's a bit more green and that the app drawer fades in/out. In my minute or two with it, that's about all I noticed, and really, that's all you can ask for at this point. That said, if you're using vanilla Froyo now, there's really no downside to using the Gingerbread launcher.

Nothing revolutionary, but given the amount of fervor over Gingerbread, the launcher and the keyboard may be just enough to whet your appetite and hold you over until some official releases start rolling out.

Dec

CyanogenMod 6.1 Final Released, Brings Android 2.2.1, Bugfixes, And New Features Galore

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, News

After spending over a month in the release candidate stages, a final (stable) release of Android's most popular ROM has just been pushed out. Cyanogen himself tweeted the news, but also mentioned one small caveat: Samsung devices (read: the Galaxy S line) are left out of the fun, with no ETA. (Update: not available for the HTC Wildfire either.)

What's new in 6.1, you ask? Oh, just a few things:

6.1.0

Common: Update to Android 2.2.1

Common: Various bugfixes from AOSP and CodeAurora

Common: ADWLauncher 1.3.3 - Ander Webbs

Common: Configurable audio focus for music app - Jonas Larsson

Common: APN cleanup (fixes many issues with GPS and MMS) - Cyanogen

Common: Use ARMv6 optimizations for DS/Hero targets - Ninpo

Common: AudioDSP updates - Antti S.

Dec

[Updated] Notion Ink Sparks Yet Another Gingerbread Release Date Rumor - This Time, December 6

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Adam, Gingerbread 2.3, News, Notion Ink

I woke up this morning to a slew of tip emails stating that Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is definitely coming out on December 6. I initially decided to pass it up (at this point, I'm so sick of Gbread rumors that I almost don't care anymore), but for the sake of you, dear reader, I thought I'd pass it along. The reason for the latest rumor is that Notion Ink posted on their blog stating the following:

6th December is another big day for Android and you will find out how fast Notion Ink can work. (Eden is extremely compatible with 2.3)

Having said that I'm sick of all the rumors, it follows that I'm also now extremely skeptical (hell, even pessimistic) every time I hear a new one, so this may just be my own annoyance...

Dec

Video Of Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor Running Android 2.2.1 AOSP Surfaces, But Details Are Scarce

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, News, NOOKcolor (Encore)

Details are stupidly scarce on this right now - there isn't even an XDA thread, and Google's not showing any hits either - but YouTube user jacememes has uploaded a video of a NOOKcolor running an Android 2.2.1 AOSP (Android open source project) build. That's certainly a fast turnaround time, given that the device was just rooted a few days ago.

The video was shot with an Android phone, so it's not the best quality, but it's more than enough to show what it needs to. Unfortunately, it's fairly short - 1:41 - and about 40 seconds of that time is just the NC booting up, meaning that in the following 1:01, it's slow because it's still loading everything.

Dec

Chitika: The Motorola Droid Is Still The #1 Android Device, Followed By HTC EVO 4G And Droid X

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Devices By Manufacturer, News

Every few months, our pal Daniel Ruby, research director for ad firm Chitika, takes a look at the market capitalization of Android devices. As of early November, the original Motorola Droid still holds an astounding lead in the market with nearly 19%. The HTC EVO 4G checks in to second place with 12%, followed by the Droid X at 10%. The Incredible (7%) and Vibrant (5%) round out the top five.

It's impressive to see that the Droid still has such a massive hold on the market, especially since it's been discontinued for a few months now. At the same time, that hold has fallen from the pant-crappingly high of 34% we saw back in June.