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If you travelled back in time to the middle of 2010 and asked your average Canadian about the selection of Android devices available to them, you would not be impressed with their answer - it seems that up until this year, the Android selection in Canada was about 6 months behind the curve.
It's no secret that the Android Market isn't exactly the easiest place to find what you want. Unless an app is super popular, brand new, or you know its exact name, you could end up wandering in that virtual mall like a small child whose mother forgot to tell them she was heading to the next shop.
There has been quite an uproar as of late over Google's handling of the source code for Honeycomb, their most recent version of Android. The company announced this week that it would be delaying the release of the Honeycomb source in order to iron out some issues, specifically ones involving running it on small-screen devices (i.e. phones). Andy Rubin gave an explanation as to why these issues exist:
PewPew, a beautiful retro style shooter (think Geometry Wars), was released for Android early February of this year and has found a rather receptive market. With its chaotic gameplay, attractive visuals, great frame rate and $0 price tag, it managed to bag a well deserved 1 million+ downloads in less than two months.
Earlier today, Engadget managed to get their hands on the Spring release schedule for UK carrier, Three. Along with some exciting, though previously known, products, such as the HTC Flyer, Desire S, ChaCha, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, and the Blackberry Playbook, we got our first peek at the Samsung Galaxy S II Mini.
If you are into custom ROMs at all, it's likely you have heard of MIUI. While its "fruity" UI is a deal-breaker for some, if you use any third-party launcher (LauncherPro, ADW, etc.), you'll find a well-built and speedy alternative to the standard list of ROMs (and you don't have to look at rounded squares all day).
If learning that the Thunderbolt will finally be dropping on March 17 just wasn't enough for you HTC fans, some more exciting news is making its way around the web today. Rumors of a dual-core HTC device, codenamed the Pyramid, have been around since the beginning of February. Now, thanks to XDA.cn, we have some images to go with the rumors.
When Google opened registration for I/O, demand from the public made the Tickle-Me-Elmo rush look like a small group of seniors enjoying a day at the mall. After the servers were slammed for a total of 59 minutes, every last ticket had been sold, at least according to Google. At the end of February, tickets for the event (and the supposed hardware goodies that come with attending) were being hocked on eBay for $2000. Given those two facts, I'm guessing you didn't manage to get your golden ticket.
Earlier this week, Sprint sent out an invitation to a special release event at the CTIA WIRELESS 2011 conference later this month. After a less than amazing showing at CES, and the "innovative" move they made with the Echo, Sprint is due for a highly anticipated device to come to their users. Thanks to an anonymous tip received by Engadget (though in no way confirmed or proved credible), you may now start anticipating.
[Update: Root No Longer Required] XDA Team Enables Webtop Over HDMI For Everyone With A Rooted Atrix
At the leading edge of this new wave of dual-core superphones is the Motorola Atrix. One of the major innovations of this device, besides the next-level processing power and fingerprint scanner, is Webtop - the desktop-style interface available when the Atrix is docked. By plugging into the HD multimedia or laptop dock (sold separately of course), you can interact with the phone on a larger display while using an internet browser, file explorer and Facebook in a pseudo-desktop environment.
On Wednesday night, NVIDIA confirmed a rumour that had been swirling around for the last few days. According to a presentation they gave and attended by the folks at ITProPortal, NVIDIA's dual core Tegra 2 chipset is powering three major handsets right now: the Motorola Atrix, the LG Optimus 2X, and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S II.
, the Google Earth-style anatomy app announced at February's Honeycomb event, has finally hit the market. After spending the month as a web app, owners of a shiny new Honeycomb tablet can glide through skin, muscle, bone, organs, veins and nerves with the swipe of a finger.
If you are reading this post, it's extremely likely that you have an Android device. If you have an Android, it's 100% certain that you want to pluck out your own eyeballs in rage every time you are forced to use the search feature in the Android Market. Even Market alternatives like AppBrain leave a lot to be desired, with sub-optimal search results and a less than beautiful UI. The sad fact that Google, a company that makes most of its revenue from search and ads, can't seem to provide half-decent results is what motivated the folks behind Chomp to get into Android.
Over the last couple of weeks, there has been quite the uproar over the HTC Thunderbolt, Verizon's first LTE phone. Most of the talk has been centered around the shipping date, with a rumoured release that slid from February 14th to the 24th to the 28th, then on to March 4th and 10th. After all this anticipation and disappointment, we may finally have a clue as to what is keeping this beast in its pen.
Just as promised, AT&T unleashed the Froyo update for the HTC Aria today. They provided a link to HTC's official download site, complete with instructions for applying the update and a warning that application will result in a hard reset of your phone. The mandatory reset does seem like a great idea, as the issues that plagued the Epic Froyo update were reportedly solved via a hard reset.
Froyo Update For Samsung Epic 4G Halted After Reports Of SD Card Access and Data Connection Problems
Samsung has a reputation for not being the greatest at updating their devices, but this week has been especially rough for them. First, Microsoft had to halt an update to the Samsung Omnia 7 due to reports of bricked devices. Today, Sprint has just stopped pushing the Android 2.2 update for the Epic as users have found hardware problems after applying it.
Today, Google got the ball rolling on Gingerbread updates for the two official "Google phones", the Nexus One and Nexus S. While this is exciting, long awaited news for owners of the Nexus One, the Nexus S crowd may have some reason for disdain.
Hot on the heels of the mock-up leak for the PlayStation certified "S1," Engadget has caught wind of another Android-powered Sony tablet currently in the works. Continuing with the theme of wacky design, the device is rumored to be a clamshell-style, dual-touchscreen device. Each display will measure 5.5 inches, and when closed, the device has a cylindrical form factor reminiscent of the giant crayon-shaped calculator I had when I was 5.
Yesterday at Mobile World Congress, HTC lifted the veil on their first entry into the tablet market: The HTC Flyer. It's a 7 inch tablet, reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy Tab released last fall. The Flyer runs Android 2.4 on a 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor and comes with HSPA+ (4G/3G+) capabilities for high-speed data usage.