Nate Kimmey - 15/21 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aug

Motorola Updates Timelines For Android Updates, Good News And Bad News For MOTOBLUR Phones

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Android OS, Backflip, CLIQ / DEXT (Morrison), CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), Devour, Droid (Sholes), Droid 2, Droid X (Shadow), Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Motorola

No phone manufacturer is as fast with software updates as customers would like them to be, but Motorola has been particularly bad, especially with some of their MOTOBLUR phones which are still stuck on Android 1.5. But they do seem to be taking a step forward with a new timeline that lists when each of their phones around the world will be receiving updates to a later version of Android.

USA

BACKFLIP (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 planned for Q3

CLIQ (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 - testing in process, planned for late Q3/early Q4

CLIQ XT (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 - testing in process, planned for late Q3/early Q4

DEVOUR (USA)
Will not have a software upgrade to Android 2.1

DROID by Motorola (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.2 currently rolling out in phases

DROID X by Motorola (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.2 planned for late summer.

Aug

Acer And Motorola Waiting For Gingerbread To Release Android Tablets

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Acer, Gingerbread 2.3, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

If you can’t wait any longer for a quality Android tablet, this may come as a bit of bad news. Both Acer and Motorola are planning to delay the release of their respective Android tablets until the release of Android 3.0, which is expected to feature support for higher-resolution screens.

Acer’s tablet may be pushed back until the first quarter of 2011, which could put a damper on previous rumors that Gingerbread would be released some time before the end of the year. Motorola’s tablet, on the other hand, may see Gingerbread much earlier, as Google is working directly with Motorola to get Android 3.0 working on their 10.1” device (which could be the rumored “Stingray” tablet headed to Verizon).

Aug

HTC Wildfire Gets Access To Root-Only Apps With Soft Root

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Development, HTC, News, Wildfire (Buzz)

It may have taken a little longer than other HTC phones, but the Wildfire has finally been rooted… in a way. This method doesn’t unlock NAND on the phone (which means you can't remove stock apps or install custom ROMs), but it does allow running applications that require root (here are 8 great root-only applications if you need inspiration).

XDA user MartinEve, who accomplished the soft root, is already in talks with the developers of unrEVOked to make a more permanent solution, but until then, you can follow the instructions below to root your Wildfire (to find the most up-to-date instructions, hit the source link).

Aug

Send Links, Images, And Text From Firefox To Your Android Phone Using FoxToPhone

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, Froyo 2.2, News

Last Updated: September 15th, 2010

Love Chrome's ChromeToPhone’s functionality? Want to achieve the same in Firefox? The world’s second most popular browser, Firefox, has an extension of its own to send links, images, selected text and clipboard from your computer straight to your Android phone with a click of a button.

To use the feature, you’ll need to:

Download the ChromeToPhone app from the Market (meaning you will need Android 2.2) or by scanning the QR code below
Download the Firefox extension, which can be found here.

Quick tip for Froyo users: When you want to fill in that long password of yours, just copy it to clipboard, then right click on the Fox To Phone icon and click "Send Clipboard"

Source: FoxToPhone via @AndroidDev

Aug

[Updated x2] CyanogenMod 6 Updates: RC3 For Nexus One, Droid, Droid Incredible, Dream, Magic; RC2 For EVO; RC1 For Slide, Hero CDMA

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Development, Dream, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Froyo 2.2, G1 (Dream), Incredible, Magic, myTouch 3G (Magic), myTouch Slide (Espresso), News, Nexus One (Passion), Sapphire

Get ready for another scoop of blue Froyo: CyanogenMod 6 has just been updated to RC3 for the Nexus One, Droid, Droid Incredible, Dream (G1) and Sapphire (myTouch 3G), RC2 for the EVO, and was just released as RC1 for the myTouch 3G Slide and Hero CDMA.

Update #1: added RC3 for Droid Incredible (thanks monkey droid)

Update #2: added RC3 for Droid (thanks Justin), RC1 for Hero CDMA (thanks Kenshiro2112)

Nexus One

Download Links

CyanogenMod 6 RC3 For Nexus One
Google Apps
Froyo Radio (required if coming from Éclair)

INSTRUCTIONS:
- First time flashing CM 6 to your Nexus (or coming from another ROM)?

Aug

Droid 2 Review Roundup: More Of The Same (And That’s A Good Thing)

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Droid 2, News, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

After the huge success of the original Droid, the Droid 2 was one of the most hotly anticipated (and most leaked) handsets ever. So, we’ve decided to compile some reviews of the device to help you decide if it’s worth upgrading to the Droid’s sequel. A few minor complaints aside, the general consensus is that this is indeed a worthy successor to the most popular Android phone yet.

Engadget

Chris Ziegler was impressed by the Droid 2’s improvements over its predecessor, but still recommends the Droid X or Droid Incredible unless a physical keyboard is a must for you.

There's no question that the Droid 1 was entering its twilight years, especially in the aftermath of the Droid X's release; Motorola and Verizon knew they needed to bring the old model up to spec if they wanted to keep a quality physical QWERTY Android device on the shelves.

Aug

Droid 2 Multi-Touch Keyboard Ported To Incredible And Other Devices

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Development, Droid 2, News

That was quick. Just two days after the release of the Droid 2, its multi-touch keyboard has already been ported to other devices, first the Droid Incredible and now the Droid, Nexus One, EVO, and Desire, though they only work on certain ROMs.

An easy method (done through your recovery) is already available, and the two reported bugs have already been fixed up; voice input is also working correctly now. If you want to try it out, download it here and flash it. Be sure to report whether it works on your ROM: below are the ROMs it has been confirmed to be working on.

Aug

Droid Incredible To Receive Update To Froyo August 18

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Froyo 2.2, Incredible, News, Verizon Wireless

In case you Droid Incredible owners were jealous that the much older Motorola Droid was getting Froyo, you can rest easy – your Froyo update is good and ready, and it’s set to go out Wednesday, August 18.

The update is over-the-air, so your phone should prompt you to install it. If you don’t want to wait, you can check for the update manually by going to Settings, About Phone, then System Updates. Verizon employees already have access to the update, so there shouldn’t be any problems or bugs.

If you receive the update, be sure to let us know how it works for you.

Aug

HTC Lexikon and Bee Leaked, Both Running Froyo With Sense

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Froyo 2.2, HTC, News

If you're willing to believe a Chinese website by the name of “911sniper,” then you may be excited to hear that HTC is prepping two new Froyo-running handsets with Sense on top, though neither will be “superphones” or very ground-breaking.

The first handset, called the HTC Lexikon, has a 3.8” 480x800 resolution screen with a 5MP camera and an 800 MHz processor and a full QWERTY keyboard. Nothing mind-blowing, but with this and the Samsung Intercept, it’s nice to see 800 MHz becoming the standard for mid-range Android phones. On the other hand, we have the HTC Bee, with a 3.2” 240x320 resolution screen, a 5MP camera with flash, and a 528 MHz processor.

Aug

Dell Blaze Leaked, Runs Android 1.5, Already Uninteresting

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Blaze, Cupcake 1.5, Dell, News

After today’s Dell Thunder leak, you may be excited to hear about a new Android offering from Dell: The Blaze. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to be interested in the phone – the Dell Blaze is running Android 1.5 with a custom UI, and is described as an entry-level device. So, while we don’t have any actual specs yet, we can determine that the screen is fairly small, my guess would be at the very top, 3.5”, but more likely around 3.2”.

Personally, I can’t understand why Dell would choose to put Android 1.5 on this device – even Android 1.6 (which the Streak still runs) would give it much better access to the latest apps.