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Sep

Wirefly Launches T-Mobile G2 Preorders, Bests The Competition: $149.99, No Tax, Free Shipping

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in G2 (Vision), News, T-Mobile

Wirefly is notorious for its aggressive pricing when it comes to new phones, and we can't blame them: being an online-only seller, they need to offer something exciting to win customers over from the carriers themselves and other retail locations, such as Best Buy or Radioshack.

The T-Mobile G2 preorder deal that went live today is no exception - it beats out all competition:

$149.99 for new accounts ($199.99 for existing ones). Considering T-Mobile itself isn't even letting non-T-Mo customers preorder at all, this is a pretty damn good deal already. However, read on.
No tax - Wirefly.com doesn't charge tax, which makes this deal better than even Radioshack's $150 offer and is way under Best Buy's $200 price tag.

Sep

Sony Ericsson: No Plans For Any New Symbian Products, It’s All Yours Nokia

Posted by Brian O'Toole in News, Sony Ericsson

To the sound of a resounding “Meh”, Sony Ericsson have publically indicated that they have dropped Symbian off their roadmap for future handsets. Having been a member of the Symbian Foundation since its creation, Sony Ericsson are now jettisoning the aging platform for greener fields, leaving Nokia as the sole steward of the Symbian brand. According to spokesman Aldo Liguori:

“[Sony Ericsson] have no plans for the time being to develop any new products to the Symbian Foundation standard or operating system”

Funnily enough, Sony Ericsson are still part of the Symbian Foundation, they just don’t have any Symbian handsets planned.

Sep

Project Porting MeeGo OS To Android Phones Starting To Yield Results

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Development, Devices By Manufacturer, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

People like Android because they like openness and because they like choice. The ability to boot a second, open-source operating system on your Android device is then a pretty compelling proposition. Following a flurry of activity around various fora, some progress has been made in booting the Linux-based Maemo 5 successor, MeeGo, on select Android devices. These devices, namely the Nexus One, Streak, and Desire are all based on the Snapdragon QSD8250 and it is that chipset the development community is focusing on.

Credit: vgrade/M.Brook

Right now, it’s unclear exactly how functional the OS is, and, as usual, the development is suffering from issues with driver cross-compatibility and other similar obstacles.

Sep

Stefano Giovannoni's AlessiTab Cooks Up November Release Date (In Italy), €399 Price Tag

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Eclair 2.1, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Well, it looks like Motorola's updates to Android 2.1 Eclair updates aren't the only things leaving users hopelessly disappointed due to delays; Stefano Giovannoni's AlessiTab, which promises to be the ultimate kitchen device, has just been delayed from its scheduled release date of October to a vague point in November of this year. Worse still (at least for us who live in the United States), the home tablet will initially launch exclusively in Italy, and for the price of €399 (about $535), which is a full €99 more than what it was originally priced at. Still, with:

a DVB-T digital TV tuner
a 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen
a front-facing camera for video chat
a unique and super sexy design (see pictures above)

it's no wonder this device got me so excited at first.

Sep

http://squio.nl/blog/wp-content/2010/05/Android_Market.png

Google Set To Expand Paid Android Market App Support Beyond Current Tally Of 14 Countries

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Apps/Games, News

Those of you following the official @AndroidDev account on twitter may have spotted a cryptic tweet sent out yesterday, urging developers to check their e-mail inboxes. Contained within was an e-mail with some exciting news: Google will be bringing access to paid applications to more countries. The when and the where have still yet to be determined, but Ireland bleedin' better be one of those countries.

Considering the fact that the Android Market is currently available in a pitiful 14 countries, listed below, any increase will make for a dramatic improvement. However, when you look at how many countries the iTunes App Store is available in (90), there is still a lot of ground to be made before catching the Apple juggernaut.

Sep

Original Motorola Milestone Comes To Alltel - 10 Months Too Late, $200 Too Much

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Alltel, Milestone, Motorola, News

Considering the fact that the original Motorola Milestone was launched almost a year ago alongside the original Droid, it may seem a bit ridiculous that the device has just now landed in Alltel's measly lineup of Android phones (the only other option is the HTC Hero). Again, that's the original Milestone, not its recently announced successor, which closely mimics the Droid 2, nor a version that, if nothing else, includes a processor upgrade or at least a camera upgrade of some sort, but the original, unmodified, device.

Even more unbelievably, Alltel is somehow expecting customers to cough up $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate and on a new two-year contract, with the off-contract price remaining a steep $499.

Sep

HTC Launches 4 New Promotional Videos For Desire HD, Desire Z, EVO 4G, And Droid Incredible

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Desire HD (Ace), Desire Z (Vision), EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Incredible, News, Videos

The new HTC Desire HD and Desire Z handsets are coming very soon, and we're incredibly excited about both of them (just take a look at that 5-second Fast Boot technology again).

In order to keep our excitement going, HTC just pushed out a new video of these bad boys flying up in the air, showing themselves off in various ways. I even got slight chills a bit at the end but I think it's mostly due to the epic music selection. Have a look (don't forget to notch up the quality to at least 720P):

Next up we are surprised that HTC hasn't forgotten about the slightly older but nevertheless one of the most game changing devices of this year - the EVO 4G and its smaller brother - the Droid Incredible.

Sep

Battery Lives Of 8 Flagship Android Phones Tested And Compared - LCD Wins, AMOLED Loses, Droid X Takes Home The Crown

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Captivate, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid 2, Droid X (Shadow), Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Incredible, News, Streak, Vibrant

Here’s something to get your teeth into. Over at LaptopMag, a whole host of Androids have been put through their paces in a grueling battery life endurance test. The goal was to keep the phones’ screens on while doing a moderate amount of processing, namely cyclically browsing a collection of web pages. Despite the supposed power savings afforded by AMOLED screens, the phones employing that screen technology fell quite a ways behind in comparison to the traditional LCD phones.

Why is that? AMOLED is supposed to only use up power on non-black pixels, right? Well, as LaptopMag points out, the majority of webpages are actually dark text on a light background, a scenario in which AMOLED actually uses more power than an equivalent backlit LCD.

Sep

Motorola Flipout Unofficially Official For AT&T, Now Available Exclusively On eBay

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in AT&T, Eclair 2.1, Flipout / Twist, Motorola

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

A version of the Motorola Flipout designed just for AT&T? Not possible, they say.

Ah, but what's this? According to a recent auction on eBay hosted by seller hotjdragon, who, mind you, has a satisfaction rating of 99.9%, this square little device is indeed real and is indeed selling for the off contract price of $388.88. Of course, it's always possible that AT&T will jack up this price in order to lock customers into a two-year service agreement, but, at least for now, here is what $388.88 gets you:

a "brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item [Motorola Flipout] in its original packaging" along with a GSM radio designed for AT&T, although, of course, it is sold off contract
specs like :
- a 700MHz OMAP3410 processor
- a 2.8-inch QVGA (320x240) display, similar to that of the Charm
- a 3MP camera
- 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM
- WiFi 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
- a 1170 mAh battery
- a 2MB MicroSD card out of the box that can be swapped up to any other capacity microSD up to 32GB
- a swiveling form factor
- assisted GPS and eCompass for location services
- a 3.5mm headset jack
MotoBlur on top of Android 2.1 Eclair
packaging that looks something like this:

and a device that looks something like this:

If you want one, you better hurry, though, as there appears to be only a few left!

Sep

[App Of The Week] Audio Manager Pro: Make Volume Adjustment In Android Simple, Tolerable, And Powerful

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

An Issue of Volume

From the day I eagerly removed the cellophane wrapping around the artful, Google-themed box which contained my Nexus One, I have had only one real gripe with Android: volume management. For a while I just dealt with it - the only way to adjust in-call volume was during a call, and other volume settings had to be controlled via the sound settings menu, or in their proper context.

It was a hassle. Reaching the settings aside, remembering if I had quieted my phone (unless it was silenced) or turned down the alarm volume was up to me, the user.