Nate Kimmey - 14/21 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Oct

FroYo's Share Grows to 33.4%, Eclair Still Dominates In Latest Android Platform Versions Chart

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Cupcake 1.5, Devices By Manufacturer, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, News

The latest Android platform numbers are out, and thanks to carrier support of updates (Verizon and Sprint, anyway) FroYo has made an impressive boost to capture 33.4% of Android devices. This isn't enough to upset Android 2.1, which remains on top with 40.4%, but it's a good sign of diminishing Android fragmentation nonetheless.

When Gingerbread hits this fall/winter, however, this chart is bound to get pretty ugly - while Donut and Cupcake continued their decline, together they still make up a decent portion of Android devices, at 26.1% combined. Fortunately, while phones running these outdated operating systems will probably not be updated in the near future, they will be discontinued by carriers and replaced with newer models running newer versions of Android (for example, T-Mobile is discontinuing the original myTouch, Motorola CLIQ, and CLIQ XT today, and has already done it to the G1).

Oct

CyanogenMod 6 Coming Soon To Epic 4G? [PIC]

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Development, Epic 4G, Froyo 2.2, News, Sprint

The invasion continues! Development of CyanogenMod 6 for the Epic 4G is clearly coming along nicely, as a picture of it running has just been released as a quick "status update" on the CM forums.

The fact that it is actually running on the device is encouraging, but we could still be pretty far away from a testable version: no downloads are available yet, and if you look at the notification bar, you'll see a pretty significant bug in this build. Still, if you're desperately awaiting Android 2.2 (or just vanilla Android) on your Epic, just know that it's on the way.

Oct

T-Mobile Announces The New myTouch: Next Gen Snapdragon, Front Facing Camera, HSPA+, Android 2.2

Posted by Nate Kimmey in HTC, myTouch, myTouch 4G (Glacier), News, T-Mobile

Just in time for the discontinuation of the original myTouch, the rumored myTouch HD has been made official, albeit with a slight name change (HD has been dropped). And the device is rocking some pretty impressive specs, which may just be enough to draw people away from the G2:

Next generation 1 GHz Snapdragon processor
5 megapixel camera with 720p capture
Front facing camera for video calling over Wi-Fi and 3G
3.8" WVGA screen
Genius Button
Android 2.2 (possibly with Espresso UI)
HSPA+ capabilities

Unfortunately, despite the awesome specs we have available, there's no word on pricing, and the only information we have on a release date is "in time for the holidays." But, right now, the only question on my mind is: when can I pre-order this beast?

Sep

Samsung Vibrant GPS Fix Through Kies Has Known Issues, T-Mobile Urges Customers To Avoid It

Posted by Nate Kimmey in News, T-Mobile, Vibrant

If you just can't wait one more day for a GPS fix for your Samsung Vibrant... you're out of luck, because the recent update through Samsung's sync app Kies, which was supposed to fix all GPS issues, is raising problems of its own, according to T-Mobile.

No word on what the new issues actually are, but hopefully T-Mobile delivers an OTA update "soon" like they've promised. Of course, if they don't, there's always the simpler solution of hacking.

Source: Twitter via Talk Android

Sep

Samsung Transform And Sanyo Zio Android Handsets Coming To Sprint

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Kyocera, News, Samsung, Sanyo, Sprint, Zio M6000

Last Updated: October 6th, 2010

Assuming this leaked image is real, Sprint has got two new Android devices in store for its customers, although one of them is hardly new at all: the Kyocera Zio, which will be branded as the Sanyo Zio, and the Samsung Transform, which appears to be another Android device, perhaps even from the Galaxy S series.

The Zio probably won't fire anybody up; it was announced last March, and even then it was considered a mid-range phone. In the few shots that exist of the device, it appears to be running stock Android, and is still thought to launch with Android 2.1.

Sep

Google Unveils "Phone Gallery", Aims To Help Us Discover and Compare All Android Devices With Google Services

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Devices By Manufacturer, News

Google promised it a fairly long while ago and today it finally got around to replacing the old Nexus One sale page with a list of all (OK, not all, at least not yet) Android phones with Google services (Market, Gmail, YouTube, et cetera). It may not be the most comprehensive list yet, but it's definitely a start.

Right now, the list only includes phones from manufacturers HTC, LG, Samsung, and Motorola, although it lists phones from several different carriers in multiple countries. If you see some phones (or countries) missing, don't fret: Google has already promised to add new countries to the list as it grows, as well as phones that are currently missing (for example, I didn't find Verizon's Samsung Fascinate present).

Sep

LG To Deliver Dual Core Smartphones Using NVIDIA Tegra 2

Posted by Nate Kimmey in LG, News

It looks like LG doesn’t want Samsung to get all the dual core glory. The company has just announced their own plans for dual core smartphones, this time using the the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor that we’ve already seen power a few Android tablets. The expected Q4 release of these phones (interestingly, the same timeframe as Samsung) seems to line up with the release of an Android-powered LG phone headed to T-Mobile. Unfortunately, without a name, there’s no way to tell if this will be part of LG’s Optimus series (currently, the only known phone in the series is the Optimus 7, which runs WIndows Phone 7).

Sep

Back To School With Android: The Budget Phones And Awesome Apps That Will Help You Get Through The Year

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Ally (Aloha), Applications, Aria (Liberty), AT&T, Backflip, Captivate, CHARM, Devour, Droid (Sholes), Hero (Sprint, HeroC), Intercept, Moment, myTouch Slide (Espresso), Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vibrant

Last Updated: July 3rd, 2011

Phones

Not everyone needs a new phone at this time of year, especially as you probably got your last one some time around Christmas, but if you’re in the market for a decent Android phone on your college-sized budget, here’s the what you’re looking at if you’re one of the four major carriers:

Verizon

Motorola Droid - Affordable doesn’t necessarily have to mean cheap, and such is the case with the original Motorola Droid. While Verizon itself no longer carries the original, (it’s been dropped in favor of the Droid 2) it can be had for the price of $0.00 (or, at most, $0.01) at third-party retailers like WireFly, Amazon, and LetsTalk.com.

Aug

Official Pictures Of The T-Mobile G2 Leaked, Take A Look At That Glorious Keyboard

Posted by Nate Kimmey in G2 (Vision), News, T-Mobile

In case you’re one of many people eagerly awaiting the successor of the original Android phone, you may be excited to hear that CellPhoneSignal has some high-quality (albeit quite small), official pictures of the upcoming T-Mobile G2, which show off just how nice that keyboard looks (not to mention how good vanilla FroYo looks, too).

So, what do you think? Is this first HSPA+ compatible handset not enough for you to leave your Vibrant? Keyboard not good enough to leave your trusty old G1? Planning on buying one on launch day? Tell us in the comments!

Source: CellPhoneSignal

Aug

T-Mobile Killing Off Motorola Cliq, Cliq XT, And MyTouch 1.2

Posted by Nate Kimmey in CLIQ / DEXT (Morrison), CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), myTouch 3G (Magic), News, T-Mobile

In what seems like preparation for their upcoming G2 handset, T-Mobile is planning on clearing out their selection of Android handsets by ending sales of the Motorola Cliq, Cliq XT, and T-Mobile MyTouch 1.2 on October 4.

Whatever the reason, it’s probably a good thing that these low-end handsets are going off the market - hopefully, it will help keep outdated OS's like Cupcake and Donut from growing in size. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help reassure owners of said phones that their updates will come in a timely fashion, if at all. The Cliq and Cliq XT are still on track to receive Android 2.1, while the MyTouch 1.2 should be receiving the update to Android 2.2.