John Thompson

May

T-Mobile Officially Announces myTouch 3G Slide Running Android 2.1

Posted by John Thompson in Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, myTouch Slide (Espresso), News, T-Mobile

T-Mobile has announced a new addition to their line of smartphones, with the introduction of the myTouch 3G Slide. Although we’ve seen it unofficially before now, the press release confirms some interesting software additions to the device, amongst other details.

Running Android 2.1, the myTouch 3G Slide consists of a 3.4-inch HVGA touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for text input. You’ll find a 5 megapixel camera with a flash, so that you can take pictures on the move, and an 8GB microSD card as standard to house all your media and apps.

T-Mobile seems to be rather keen on marketing the device to families, stating how the "myTouch 3G Slide is designed to help families stay connected to their favorite people throughout their busy days", and citing a June release:

Today, T-Mobile announced a new addition to its exclusive line of Android-powered T-Mobile myTouch 3G smartphones - the T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide. Anticipated to be available in June, the new myTouch 3G Slide combines a roomy slide-out QWERTY keyboard with an incredibly crisp, high-performance touch screen powered by the latest Android software (Android 2.1). Designed to help families stay connected to their favorite people throughout their busy days, the myTouch 3G Slide offers new, exclusive features, including Faves Gallery, myModes and Genius Button.

May

XPERIA X10's Little Brother, The X10 Mini, Coming Soon To Vodafone

Posted by John Thompson in News, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

The XPERIA X10 Mini, first seen at the Mobile World Congress back in February, has shown up on our radars once again. CoolSmartphone.com has posted pictures of the Mini making an appearance in Vodafone’s monthly magazine, under the ‘coming soon’ section.

Although the X10 Mini doesn’t offer a slide out QWERTY keyboard like the Mini Pro (thanks, Rana), Sony Ericsson have managed to pack in a 5 megapixel, geo tagging camera with auto focus along with video recording capabilities.

The 2.55” capacitive display has a resolution of 240 x 320, with a 600MHz processor and 128MB RAM running the device. You’ll find a microSD card for storage, which comes with a 2GB card as standard.

May

Another Tablet Device Aigo N700 To Arrive With Android 2.1, HDMI, Tegra 2 Graphics

Posted by John Thompson in News

If you’ve been thinking of diving into the tablet market recently and are looking for an alternative to Apple’s iPad, you may want to direct your attention to Aigo’s new tablet: the N700.

Running on a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor coupled with 512MB of memory and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chip, the N700 certainly knows how to make an entrance. You’ll find a 7-inch capacitive display with a resolution of 800 x 480, inbuilt storage of either 4, 16 or 32GB and, of course, Android 2.1 to match.

There are plenty of ports for various peripherals on the N700. You’ll find a USB port, microSD slot and HDMI output too.

May

Google Acquires BumpTop, Will The Ingenious UI Make It To Android?

Posted by John Thompson in News

It was announced today that BumpTop has just been purchased by Google, following a statement made on April 30th that the application was being discontinued.

Dear BumpTop fans,
More than three years ago, we set out to completely change the way people use their desktops. We're very grateful for all your support over that time — not just financially but also through all the encouraging messages from people who found BumpTop inspiring, useful, and just downright fun.
Today, we have a big announcement to make: we're excited to announce that we've been acquired by Google! This means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will no longer be available for sale.

May

Memory Card App Storage Support (Apps2SD) Coming To Android ‘Soon’

Posted by John Thompson in News

Utilizing SD cards for the storage of apps has undoubtedly been one of the biggest feature requests of Android since the G1 was released, with users being limited to the internal storage capacity of their devices to install applications on. Fortunately, Google have finally addressed the issue, and an update may not be too far away.

A post on Issue 1151 yesterday by a Google representative confirmed that the feature was ‘coming soon’ to Android devices, although no exact information was divulged at the time. This post came shortly after the status of the issue was changed to “Future Release”

Apologies, but I'm not permitted to disclose scheduling information - suffice to say it's coming soon :) Sorry for being vague, and thank you for your continued patience - I sincerely appreciate it.

Apr

Android 2.1 Ported To G1 and MyTouch 3G By Cyanogen

Posted by John Thompson in G1 (Dream), Mods, myTouch 3G (Magic), News

Early Android adopters will soon be able to use Android 2.1 on the G1 and MyTouch 3G thanks to Cyanogen, with the release of CyanogenMod 5.0.7.

The latest version of the ROM should be available to users in no time at all, with a public beta arriving at some point today according to Cyanogen’s tweet:

Some compromises may need to be made to allow Android 2.1 to fit on the G1 and MyTouch 3G due to limited available space on the devices - in fact, this is what is causing the delay before the release is live.

Nevertheless, this is still Android 2.1, and therefore a vast improvement with or without some extra features.

Apr

Skyfire 2.0 Launches For Android Today

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, Apps/Games, News

After the much hyped acquisition of Kolbysoft and a controversial leaked alpha, Android users who are eager to enjoy Flash video on their phones can now grab Skyfire 2.0, dubbed the first ‘mobile browser for the Social Media generation’.

In a departure from the very popular Windows Mobile version of the browser, the developers have chosen not to include Flash video in-line and have instead introduced a new feature: the SkyBar.

When users visit a page that hosts a Flash video, the SkyBar will pop up and alert them to the videos presence. They then have the option of launching the video, which is transcoded to H.264 on the fly and in the cloud, and delivered seamlessly to the user's device.

Apr

Google's VP Of Engineering Confirms Full Flash Support In Android 2.2 Froyo, Compares Apple To North Korea

Posted by John Thompson in News

Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google, recently gave an interview to the New York Times, touching on topics ranging from Flash to North Korea. With Google vying for top place in the smartphone market, Rubin seemed confident that Android devices can overtake the number of iPhones, saying

I don’t know when it might be, but I’m confident it will happen. Open usually wins.

When commenting on the number of Android devices that are currently on the market, Rubin said that the driving force behind Android taking off is the fact that it’s open and available to so many manufacturers, commenting on how

It’s a numbers game.

Apr

Mozilla Firefox For Android (Fennec) Pre-Alpha Available For Android 2.0+ Devices, Looks Very Promising

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, News

Mozilla’s mobile version of Firefox, codenamed Fennec, is now available to download for Android 2 users.

Vladimir Vukićević, a developer at Mozilla, posted an update on his blog yesterday informing users about the progress that the project is making. Although this is still a pre-alpha build of Fennec, it gives a good idea of how the browser will look and feel as it continues to mature. Firefox fans should definitely try this out, although Vladimir did note a few potential issues in the post

We've only really tested this on the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One.
It will likely not eat your phone, but bugs might cause your phone to stop responding, requiring a reboot.

Apr

Vodafone Launches Nexus One In The UK

Posted by John Thompson in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, News, Nexus One (Passion), Vodafone

Yesterday, Vodafone announced that UK customers can pre-order the Nexus One which is going to be available in the UK from this Friday, April 30th. This comes after the company told customers that the phone would be available in ‘a few short weeks’ way back at CES.

The phone will be available for free on various plans starting from £35 a month on a 24 month contract. The most interesting part of this is that consumers can purchase it directly from Vodafone either online or in store, deviating once again from Google’s plan of allowing consumers to mix and match between phones, carriers and tariffs when purchasing a device on their sales website.