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

Aug

Mr. Blurrycam Provides Picture Of HTC Froyo Device - Could Be The Desire HD

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Desire HD (Ace), News

A blurrycam shot of an unnamed HTC Android device running Android 2.2 (presumably... my Chinese is a little rusty) has been spotted over on the Android Hong-Kong forums (the irony is not lost on me: the picture was taken with an iPhone).

Although the device doesn’t seem to have any physical HTC branding, there is an “HTC Confidential” watermark on the screen of the device, and it’s running an HTC kernel. Some technical details are provided - take them with a grain of salt though:

4.3” 480x800 Screen
8 MP Camera
1 GHz Qualcomm (most likely a Snapdragon)
720p Camcorder
Face tracking
4 GB microSD card in the box
“Aluminum body” - the front isn’t aluminum, but the sides look like they are.

Aug

RocketFish Android Tablet Spotted - Froyo And A Front-Facing Camera, Powered By Imagination

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News, RocketFish

Early last month, Robert Stephens, CTO for Best Buy, revealed via Twitter that the company was working on an Android tablet. The good news: he’s now tweeted a few pictures of a RocketFish branded tablet, and boy does it look good (actually, it looks startlingly similar to the iPhone 4). The bad news: Engadget says it lacks internals (although I couldn’t find that anywhere). Somehow, despite the fact that it evidently has nothing inside, Stephens claims it runs Froyo and has a front-facing camera for video calling over Fring.

The idea of a RocketFish branded Android tablet is pretty enticing - in my experience, RF products are good quality at a great price, and given how gorgeous this thing looks, it doesn’t seem like they’re looking to pop out another low-quality, slapstick tablet.

Aug

From The Horse’s Mouth: Samsung Epic 4G Pre-Order Not Starting Today

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Epic 4G, News, Sprint

Earlier today, Engadget reported that Sprint would begin taking pre-orders for the Epic 4G later today. Before running with the story, we wanted to fact-check with our Sprint rep, and we’re glad we did - his response:

No plans for pre-order today. As you know, people can however sign up to get additional information sent to them when it’s available - but not pre-order.

There you have it - as much as we wish it was true, looks like we have a bit longer to wait.

Aug

HTC Droid Eris On-Phone One Click Root Available

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid Eris, Mods, News

Yesterday we brought news of an on-phone one click root for the Samsung Galaxy S line of phones - which itself was based off of a similar root for the HTC Droid Eris (as mentioned in the post). Turns out we didn’t mention the Eris root the first time around - so here it is.

Android user/coder jcase has come up with an App to root any Eclair-running Droid Eris’. The process is nearly as simple as it gets:

Step 1) download and install this apk
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8699733/erisone010.apk - VERSION 0.1.0
Step 2) Run, read disclaimer, press button
Step 3) Reboot, once rebooted your phone should have Amon's recovery.

Aug

[Updated: Watch Out!] On-Phone One Click Root Available For Samsung Galaxy S

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Captivate, Epic 4G, Fascinate, Mods, News, Vibrant

[Updated August 6 @ 10:15 AM EST]

Enterprising user rhcp0112345 over at XDA-Devs (where else?) has come up with an on-phone, one click root/unroot for the Samsung Galaxy S line of devices. It has only been tested on his Vibrant, but it should work across the line of devices.

There are no real details on the process yet - but it seems that you just install the app, hit “root” or “unroot,” and reboot your device. Sounds simple enough.

Full post:

Hey,
I just wrote this up.
Thanks to jcase for the information and his root for eris: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=742228
This will root/unroot.

Aug

DamageControl 3.5 Released For HTC EVO 4G, Packing Froyo And The Usual DC Goodies

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in EVO 4G (Supersonic), Froyo 2.2, Mods, News

Last Updated: August 7th, 2010

Damageless and TrevE have been hard at work for the past few weeks porting Froyo to the EVO. On July 24th, they released the first DC 3.5 (Froyo) beta. Today (in the wee hours of the morning) they released their final build - and users seem to be loving it. The guys have also set up a Google Code page for DC, which provides a wiki and bug database, in addition to the usual news/latest version page.

Full post:

DamageControl v3.5
Froyo with damaged goods
First of all, I would like to thank all of our testers that helped work on our port on the original DamageControl v3.5.

Aug

[Updated: Facebook Addresses The Issue] Flipz (Of Fresh ROMs): Facebook 1.3 Eats Battery. Hardcore

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

A few days ago, we reported that the Facebook app had been updated, and now included “less suck”; turns out we may have been wrong (that pun will make sense in a minute). Flipz, the developer behind the awesome Fresh ROM’s, has done his homework and found that the updated Facebook App has a wake lock bug that drains the battery fairly significantly.

As mentioned, the problem arises from the wake lock. Wake lock is intended to keep parts of the phone running - typically the screen, but it can be configured to turn the screen off and leave the internal hardware on.

Aug

Android Still Growing Like Gangbusters: Eric Schmidt Says 200,000 Android Phones Sold Daily

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, News

On June 23, Eric Schmidt told the world that Google was tracking 160,000 Android devices sold per day – and just a month before that, they were at 100,000/day. Today, he revealed that 200,000 Android devices are sold every day. It’s truly amazing, especially considering the scope of other devices – as much as I hate to do this, I’m going to drag in the iDevices, and quote the figures I stated in June:

Excluding the iPhone 4 launch, Apple averages approximately 246,000 phone sales per week
Mac sales are estimated to be 110,000 units per week
iPad sales are estimated to be 200,000 per week

The important caveat there is that figure excludes the iPhone 4 launch, but I’m not looking to draw a line from Android to iOS here – rather, I’m looking to establish a scope.

Aug

Platform Version Update: Froyo Trickles In, Eclair Up, Still Too Much Cupcake & Donut – But We’re All Still Eating Too Much Sugar and Fat

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

The newest Android Platform Version numbers are out, and the news is both good and bad. Android 2.2 (Froyo) now has 4.5% of the market, while Android 2.1 (Eclair) commands 59.7% – meanwhile, Android 1.5 and 1.6 (Cupcake and Donut) still account for a whopping 35.6%.

The good news in those numbers is obvious – many devices are starting to catch up, and FroYo has taken an additional 2.7% of the market – and these numbers are from before Froyo updates started popping up all over. The bad news is similarly obvious – over 1 in 3 users is still stuck on an old-school version of Android.

Aug

Facebook For Android Updated To Version 1.3 - Now With Less Suck

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

Facebook released an updated version of their Android app today and finally addressed many reported issues – namely, that it was underpowered in comparison to the Facebook app for the iPhone, or even the mobile site. Tonight’s update brings a slew of improvements, raising the app to a level that puts it on par with its sister app on iOS.

As you can see, the new app (left) is much improved over the old (right) – the most obvious new features being the photo bar along the bottom and the notification bar that now slides up, as well as adding Events, Messages, Search, and a… What’s New button.