David Ruddock
David's phone is an HTC One X+. He is an avid writer, and enjoys imparting a legal perspective on Android news where it is relevant. He also doesn't usually write such boring sentences.

03
Jun
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Update: Link to the de-odexed version added. Happy flashing!

03
Jun
snap20110603_092859

Looking for a rooted version of this update? Have no fear - head over to our other post.

Update 2: Here's a direct download link from our own (fast) mirror for the EVO 4G Official Gingerbread OTA.

HTC EVO 4G Official Gingerbread OTA: Download here

To flash it, follow these instructions:

  1. Download the OTA
  2. Rename the file "update.zip" (the actual file suffix needs to be .zip, make sure .zip isn't just in the name [eg, not update.zip.zip])
  3. Place the file on the root of your SD card (the main directory you see when you mount your EVO as a disk drive)
  4. Reboot into recovery (power off, then hold volume down when you hit then power button to power back on)
  5. Select recovery from the menu with the power button, then, when the sign with the exclamation point appears, press Power+Volume Up at the same time, and wait (up to 30 seconds).
01
Jun
plusonebutton

Google +1 has been quietly rolled out over the last few months to Google users - allowing them to "+1" (aka, "Like") pages found in Google search results. Today, +1 has been expanded into a number of other Google services, including the Android Web Market:

pic1 rm

Pretty neat, right? ROM Manager likes are already piling up. It's very likely we'll see +1 expanded onto the Android Market app in the future, as Google tries to make +1 a part of everyday life for Google users.

Additionally, YouTube, Blogger, and Product Search all have implemented +1. Google has announced a number of partner sites that will have embedded "+1" buttons for content and products (eg, Best Buy, Reuters), similar to the way other social sharing features are incorporated (like Tweet buttons).

01
Jun
evo-3d-radioshack-june-24-550x328

Update: One of our commenters has pointed out that a current Sprint carrier-switch incentive plan (offering $125 per line to switch from another carrier) ends on June 23rd. Oddly convenient timing, don't you agree? That makes this date seem even more likely. Thanks Todd!

Well, there's been a lot of rumor-mongering about the EVO 3D's release date, and we've stayed pretty silent on the matter. Today, thanks to the good folks over at Phandroid, we've got a date we feel pretty confident in posting (in the sense that it was probably real at the time the flyer in question was printed):

evo-3d-radioshack-june-24-550x328

Aside from the almost annoyingly ever-present Green Hornet ad-placement, at the center of the ad you can clearly see the words "Pre-order the new HTC EVO 3D Today.

30
May
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Update 3: ZodTTD, developer of several well-known emulators, recently met a similar fate as yongzh - both his Market account and his apps were removed. Today, he decided to clarify a few things in a blog post, noting that the removal of the apps was not due to an open source violation but rather came as a result of a trademark infringement letter from Sony to Google concerning PSX4Droid's icon. While yongzh did not publish any Sony emulators himself, it does seem that the big guys are taking an active interest in the emulator situation on the Market.

Update 2: Google has issued a generic response to our inquiry asking what led to the takedown:

Thanks for checking in.

29
May
hi-256-1-aba614b5b52326448c12ec386a67ede6188701b0

Evernote, the wildly popular note-taking service, has a big following - but it hasn't really been properly adapted to the big screen, yet. We heard that was about to change back at I/O (we didn't have time to hit up the Evernote booth in the frenzy that was the conference), but the folks over at ArsTechnica sat down with the developers of Evernote and got the scoop.

Update 5/29/11: The first beta download of Evernote for Honeycomb is now live - grab it from here.

Evernote for Honeycomb will be bringing an awesome new rich-text editor to the app, optimized for tablet use.

27
May
trollface

You've all probably heard bits and pieces of news about a company called Lodsys in the last couple of weeks, (they've been "patent trolling" iOS app developers) even if you don't really keep up on all things fruit-related. If you're not familiar with the story, let me give you a quick rundown.

Lodsys is what we affectionately refer to as a "patent troll" - a company that buys up promising and often vague or [overly] broad patents in a hope of using them to threaten to sue the pants off people that they know might be infringing on them. Let me say that again - they find a patent, find out how many people might be infringing it, and then decide to buy it.

27
May
4g-speed1
Last Updated: May 30th, 2011

Update Memorial Day: Well, Amazon prices didn't drop today. Our Amazon rep hasn't gotten back to us to confirm, but @AmazonWireless has tweeted that the "all 4G phones free" sale wasn't real, so I'm writing off the Amazon part of this sale as a hoax. :(

LetsTalk.com

Deals - we got 'em. While Amazon is having their own Memorial Day Android handset sale over at Amazon Wireless, LetsTalk.com wasn't about to be outdone. Here's the most relevant (not all-inclusive) deals, including the 20% off coupon code for Verizon phones (the code is: 7c7f3319) (prices that beat Amazon's are italicized, and we've provided Amazon's prices for comparison).

27
May
paypal-android1

Disclaimer: I'm not an attorney. This is not legal advice.

The PayPal and Google lawsuit is just another one of Google's seemingly endless big-name legal tangles over the last couple of years. Why is Google litigation such a frequent topic?

At least in part, it's because Google has one of the most aggressive stances towards litigation of any member of the tech industry. Google's reputation for taking its battles to court has become almost notorious (well, except for the "Buzz" incident) - regardless of cost or, sometimes, likelihood of victory. Google's approach is one of the modern corporation - during the 1990's and 80's, when civil litigation was actually more prevalent, in-house counsels for major corporations often preferred to settle potentially high-dollar suits rather than risk wasting piles of cash on defending them, only to lose in the end.

25
May
swype

Update 3: Swype has contacted us to clarify the following: 

Swype does not, and will not ever make money off of the data it collects from you.  They do not sell ads.  They do not sell information. The comment made on the CM review forum was a generalization about the larger Android app developer community, and in no way was intended to imply that Swype uses your data for ad revenue.

Update 2: Here's what Swype Community Representative Brian Resnik has to say about all this:

Swype Community Rep here (the guy who made the comments on Google Code).

Honestly, piracy is not our concern.