Cameron Summerson - 82/261 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Cameron Summerson

Cameron is a self-made geek, Android enthusiast, horror movie fanatic, and musician. When he's not pounding keys here at AP, you can find him spending time with his wife and kids, plucking away on the 6-string, or watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on repeat.

Follow @Summerson

Sep

Updated Jelly Bean Factory Images Show Up For The Nexus S and Nexus S 4G

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g)

Back in July, Google made available the stock Jelly Bean images for a couple of the Nexus S variants, as well as the GSM Galaxy Nexus, and Nexus 7. Today, the build for the global Nexus S (soja) got updated to Android 4.1.1 (JRO03L), and the Nexus S 4G (sojas) Jelly Bean 4.1.1 image (JRO03R) made its way to Google's image download site, as well.

Unfortunately, there's still no sign of Jelly Bean showing up for the Korean version of the Nexus S (or the LTE Galaxy Nexii, for that matter). Sorry, guys - looks like we'll have to keep waiting for those.

Sep

Engadget Benchmarks The RAZR i, It's Probably Not The Powerhouse You Were Expecting

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, RAZR i

Right after Motorola made the RAZR i official, the very first comment on our post was "Benchmarks ASAP!" because everyone wants to know how Intel's Medfield processor compares to the more common ARM-based chips that we're used to seeing. Engadget spent some time doing exactly that this morning, and the results are, well... less than impressive. Have a look:

The only area where the RAZR i outperforms its Snapdragon S4-touting cousin (the M) is in the SunSpider benchmark, which tests browser performance. Do these scores mean the RAZR i is a bad phone? Heck no. Benchmarks are fun for looking at raw horsepower, but the real test is once you get the device in your hands.

Sep

Acer Officially Announces The 7" Jelly Bean-Powered Iconia Tab A110

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Iconia A110, News

Acer just officially announced the smaller of two tablets we saw from the company back at Computex in June: the Iconia Tab A110. The device appears to be a head-to-head competitor with the Nexus 7, as it offers many of the same features, as well as a few missing from the N7:

7 " 1024x600 display
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor
microUSB, microSD, and microHDMI ports
390g
Android 4.1

^{This image is an earlier leak of the device. Unfortunately, Acer has not yet provided official press shots.}

While the display resolution is the primary drawback of this tablet in comparison to the N7, HDMI out and expandable storage are features lacking on Google's official tablet.

Sep

Twentieth Century Fox Titles Coming Soon To Google Play Movies And YouTube, 'Prometheus' Already Available

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Google just sealed the deal with Twentieth Century Fox to brings its titles to Play Movies and YouTube. This means shows like Family Guy, Modern Family, Glee, and more; as well as movies such as X-Men, Ice Age, and Black Swan will all be making their way to the Play Store for rental and purchase. Yay!

To celebrate this new union, Fox released Prometheus in HD to Play Movies this morning - a full three weeks ahead of the movie's release on Blu-Ray and DVD.

With the addition of Fox, Google is now working with all six major film studios, as well as several independent studios to bring even more movies and TV shows to Google Play and YouTube.

Sep

Minor Update (Build 9.4.5.30) Rolling Out To The ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity, Full ROM Also Available For Direct Download

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Transformer Pad Infinity

Last Updated: September 21st, 2012

A small update is now available for the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity that is very similar to the one we saw hit the Transformer Pad 300 way back in May. While most of the enhancements appear to be under the hood, this build brings Face Unlock, as well as improved camera firmware, a bump in GPS software, and a few others.

Those who have unlocked the bootloader and are running a custom recovery won't be prompted to install this update, but ASUS has already made it available for download on its website. You can grab the download here - make sure to get the appropriate build according to your region: WW, US, TW, JP, and CN.

Sep

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 Already Rooted, Here's How To Do It

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Kindle Fire HD, News

Yesterday, we told you that Amazon's newest Kindles are shipping with locked bootloaders. We mentioned that this probably wouldn't prevent the devices from being rooted, as a method was already in the works. That method has now been confirmed, and root for the Kindle Fire HD is go!

This is confirmed to work on the Fire HD 7, but should work on all new variants that are based on ICS.

First off, this exploit is actually based one that was found on the Transformer Prime in ICS by sparkym3, so full credit goes to him.

Before you get started, you need to download SU:

Download

After you download the file, extract the contents and pull SU from /system/bin/ and SuperUser.apk from /system/app/ and put them in the directory you'll be working from.

Sep

PSA: Some 16GB Nexus 7s Experiencing Severe Performance Issues With Less Than 3GB Of Free Space Remaining

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Nexus 7

When I first got my 16GB Nexus 7, it was fast. Probably faster than any other Android device I'd ever used. Everything was fluid, apps launched quickly, and transitioning between open applications was the best experience that I'd ever had on Android.

I was in love.

Then, a couple weeks ago, it inexplicably started to lag. A lot. I had just installed a test build of Horn, so I assumed that had something to do with it and uninstalled the game. After a quick reboot, I expected all would go back to normal. I was wrong.

I checked to see if anything out of the ordinary was running in the background, but found nothing amiss.

Sep

The Kindle Fire HD And Second Gen Kindle Fire Both Have Locked Bootloaders

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, News

So, you were thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire HD, rooting it, and throwing a ROM on it for an impressive $200 tablet? Turns out that idea may not work out as well as we initially thought: both the Kindle Fire HD and the second gen KF have locked bootloaders. Bummer.

This may not mean that custom ROMs are impossible on these devices, only that it's more improbable.

For those who may not know, the bootloader is responsible for checking the firmware's signature before a device boots. In this case, if it doesn't match what Amazon says it should, then it simply won't do anything.

Sep

Official CyanogenMod 10 Nightlies Arrive For The Galaxy Note (International And AT&T)

Posted by Cameron Summerson in AT&T, Galaxy Note (GT-N7000), News

While many people are patiently waiting for the Note II to hit the streets, the CM team has been working to bring the latest Android build to the original Note variants. CM10 has actually been available for the AT&T Note for a few days now, but the first nightly for the international variant just showed up.

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

It could oftentimes be unstable and not properly tested, lacking any changelogs, but eventually evolving into alphas, betas, release candidates, and finally stable releases.

Sep

[Updated] Reddit User Crafts A Beautifully Integrated Sci-Fi-esque Homescreen Using Apex Launcher And A Custom Wallpaper

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News

If you've ever cruised through r/AndroidThemes, then you've probably seen some pretty impressive homescreens floating around. Some are ultra-minimal. Others are highly functional while still retaining an appealing look. Then, there are those that just stand out from the crowd because of a well thought-out layout.

The Sci-Fi Interface Theme by Reddit user Futant55 is a shining example of the latter. It has the look of something very difficult to create, but is actually just a few widgets precisely placed to fit in perfectly with the custom wallpaper. Have a look: