Android Police Team - 3/4 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

HTC EVO 4G/Supersonic Playing 720P HD Video Through HDMI, Without A Single Stutter. This Changes Everything

Posted by Android Police Team in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Videos

It's amazing how far mobile CPUs have gone in just 6 months. Here we have a video, courtesy of IntoMobile, of the newly announced HTC EVO 4G, formerly Supersonic, absolutely effortlessly playing a 720P HD video of Prince of Persia: The Sand Of Time.

HD video is more CPU intensive than plain standard definition, but the 1GHz Snapdragon processor is barely breaking a sweat. For comparison, the HTC Hero with its 528MHz processor can barely play average quality videos, even ones it itself recorded, and stumbles every few seconds.

This Changes Everything

You are now (OK, fine, a few months from now) holding a device in the palm of your hand that replaces your DVD player, your Bluray player (95% of the people won't notice the difference between 720P and 1080P), and your media PC.

Mar

Calm Down - Sprint Will Not Charge Extra For Using The Sprint 4G Network On HTC EVO 4G, Will Not Have 5GB Monthly Limits On 4G

Posted by Android Police Team in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Sprint

After today's announcement of the HTC EVO 4G, formerly HTC Supersonic, everyone seemed really excited - what's not to like? The phone is absolutely amazing, more powerful than ever before. Many questions were finally answered but one remained:

Will Sprint Charge Extra For Using 4G On The EVO?

I just got off the phone with a Sprint CSR, Kathy, who assured me that Sprint will NOT charge extra for using 4G on your new EVO 4G.

The phone will switch to the 4G mode automatically in areas where it is available and fall back on 3G otherwise.

This seals the deal for many of you afraid that the new device would bring unwanted new charges.

Mar

BREAKING: HTC Supersonic Now Called HTC EVO 4G - Coming To Sprint This Summer - Monster Details Inside

Posted by Android Police Team in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News

Last Updated: March 25th, 2010

Here is the long awaited announcement from Sprint/HTC - the Supersonic name is no more and the phone is now called EVO 4G.

It will be released this summer, so roll your tongues back up, pick up your jaws and prepare for the painful wait. Get ready to be taunted by the HTC HD2 (which is very similar but running WinMo) owners, and coming out any day now.

Here are the specs of this monster. It is, indeed, the most impressive phone to day:

1GHz Snapdragon QSD8650 CPU
a 4.3" TFT screen, 480x800 resolution
TWO cameras - 8MP on the back and 1.3MP on the front
DUAL flashes on the back - I got to see what that looks like on the HD2 and it's really blinding
720P video playback and recording using the rear camera and HDTV connectivity via HDMI through an adaptor
1GB internal storage
8GB MicroSD card included, expandable to 32GB
512MB RAM
WiMax/4G with support for 8 concurrent users
WiFi b/g
FM radio
Proximity, light, gyro sensors, digital compass, GPS
Bluetooth 2.1 A2DP + EDR
1500mAh battery
a kickstand - interesting, that's a new and lightweight way of making your phone stay upright - great for watching videos on the huge screen
Android 2.1 with HTC Sense
Dimensions: 4.8" x 2.6" x 0.5" (122mm x 66mm x 13 mm)
Weight: 6 ounces
MicroUSB connector

Here are some pictures and videos, courtesy of Engadget and Sprint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8-YNacAGHs

Sources:

Mar

Sprint Goes After AT&T And Apple In A Snarky 4G Sprint Overdrive Mobile Hotspot Vs iPhone Commercial

Posted by Android Police Team in AT&T, News, Sprint, Videos

Sprint has fired a shot at both AT&T and Apple in this recently released Sprint Overdrive 4G vs iPhone commercial, suggesting that an iPhone's bandwidth can be vastly improved by using a Sprint 4G WiMax router called Sprint Overdrive instead of the AT&T 3G network.

The ad is a bit cheesy but hey, it delivers the message. A carefree Matt actually goes on to eat an Apple (the ultimate pun) while showing off his 4G mobile hotspot that allows up to 5 people around him to connect to a 4G network using WiFi. Oh yeah, and his friend's name? You guessed it - Steve.

Mar

Kyocera Wants Back Into The Smartphone Business - Announces Android Powered Zio M6000, Set For Q2 '10

Posted by Android Police Team in Kyocera, Zio M6000

Fresh off the press, i.e. the first day of the CTIA Wireless 2010 trade show, Kyocera announced its return into the smartphone business with, as you already guessed, a new Android device - the Zio M6000.

Here are the specs at a glance:

3.5" WVGA screen, motion-enhanced (huh?)
3.2MP camera (meh)
trackball
256MB internal memory (is this storage or RAM?)
virtual keyboard
CDMA
ambient light sensor, accelerometer, WiFi, and all the standard Android business

No word on the CPU type and frequency, included memory card size, supported carriers (though it was clarified to be CDMA. Verizon? Sprint?), or the initial Android version.

Mar

Tech And Android Podcasts For The Week Of 03/22/2010-03/28/2010

Posted by Android Police Team in News

Last Updated: March 29th, 2010

Here are this week's podcasts dedicated to or regularly mentioning Android:

Android And Me Show

Episode 7 (03/24)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Android Central

CTIA Special (03/24)

Phil, Dieter and Kevin are at CTIA and discuss the mass amount of Android Awesomeness that was unleashed.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Episode 4 (03/26)

Recorded before all of the CTIA brouhaha, Phil is joined by Michael Manna of the T4 show to discuss all things Android, including whether to go with the Droid or Nexus One on Verizon.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Android Guys Podcast

No episode this week.

Mar

The 4.3" 1GHz HTC Supersonic Sprint Announcement Imminent Today 03/23/2010 (Or Tomorrow 03/24/2010?)

Posted by Android Police Team in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Nexus One (Passion)

The mobile sphere is abuzz with the rumors of a possible HTC Supersonic announcement tomorrow, all caused by a tiny note Sprint posted in the member area on Sprint.com. Here is a screenshot (courtesy of Sprint Forums):

According to other users who have talked to various Sprint customer service reps, Supersonic is indeed "coming very very soon", which seems to only confirm the rumor. Of course, nothing is 100% until we tune into the announcement… the time of which is currently unknown.

It is also not clear what exactly "tomorrow" means here, mostly because Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint, is scheduled as the keynote speaker for the 2nd day of the 2010 CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, which happens to be Wednesday, not Tuesday as some are mistakenly reporting.

Nov

How I Doubled My Android Phone's (HTC Hero) Battery Life or Just How Much Email Polling Affects Your Battery

Posted by Android Police Team in Hero, Hero (Sprint, HeroC), HTC, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: March 21st, 2010

This post and all its comments were migrated from Artem's personal blog beerpla.net when Android Police launched. If you would like to visit the original post there, please click here.

It's not a secret that my Sprint HTC Hero has been having trouble keeping battery charge - by the time I came home from work, the battery level would oftentimes be at 10% or the phone would be simply dead.

One would give up and accept this futility but I had 2 reasons to keep trying to figure out why:

my co-worker's battery would consistently hold twice as much charge as mine - by the time I was at 50%, he was at 75%
a wide range of responses on Internet forums and blog posts suggested some people experienced excellent battery life, while others, like me, did not have as much luck

I received feedback from many people that the solution outlined here has helped them double their battery lives not just on their Android phones but also their Pres, Windows Mobile, and others.

Nov

Meet Firefox For Mobile [Video + Feature Highlights + More Info]

Posted by Android Police Team in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Videos

Last Updated: March 22nd, 2010

This post and all its comments were migrated from Artem's personal blog beerpla.net when Android Police launched. If you would like to visit the original post there, please click here.

When I visited Mozilla's offices about 6 months ago, I saw a mobile testing station which included about 20-30 different phones lounging around, with their chargers plugged in. I knew something serious was coming soon. There were rumors about Firefox for Mobile for a while but nothing to really show for it. That was then…

Today, however, we know a lot more. Firefox for Mobile, codenamed Fennec, is coming next month (see More Info below) and looks very promising.

Nov

Sprint And HTC Release The First HTC Hero Firmware Update 1.56: Fixes Major Bugs, Adds Small Tweaks

Posted by Android Police Team in Hero (Sprint, HeroC), HTC, News, Sprint

This post and all its comments were migrated from Artem's personal blog beerpla.net when Android Police launched. If you would like to visit the original post there, please click here.

Only 2 days after I posted the list of problems with my HTC Hero (The Not So Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: My List Of 20+ Problems With HTC Hero) Sprint and HTC released the first firmware update.

The Update

To update your Hero, go to Settings->About phone->System updates->Firmware update.

The update took about 10 minutes to install, weighed 3.7MB or so, and rebooted the phone twice - once to install and once to reboot after the installation, so make sure you don't need to make any important phone calls during that time.