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Sep

[Hands-On] Android Remote Notifier For Your Win/Linux/Mac Desktop: For When Your Phone Isn't Notify-y Enough

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Most nights that I'm at home, my son is sound asleep in the next room. To avoid waking him up, I put my phone into silent mode faithfully every night at 9pm and, subsequently, miss a whole lot of calls and text messages. That's bad for two reasons:

I miss what could potentially be important information or, as in most cases, good times.
It makes me look like a jerk who never answers his phone and ignores his friends.

So I thought to myself "I'm on my computer all the time, I should make an app that puts my notification on my computer screen so I never miss this stuff." Turns out, somebody already made that app and it is as awesome as I had hoped.

Sep

TweetDeck For Android v0.9.8 Arrives, Brings Pie, Candy, Widgets

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

TweetDeck for Android, which got immensely popular ever since its first public release a month ago, just got an update which finally brought the missing and very much anticipated widget support. After updating, you will find not 1, not 2, but 3 different widgets.

Changelog

Here is the changelog:

New "Quick post" widget
New "Column" widget
New "Quick launch bar" widget
All new Add Column interface
Fixed various bugs and improved performance

The Widgets

Check out all of the new widgets in the screenshots I just took:

the top one is TweetDeck Column which turns into a quick view of one of your columns.

Sep

Motorola CLIQ, CLIQ XT, And Backflip Now To Receive 2.1 Upgrade In Early Q4; Those Who Still Care Are Not Amused

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Backflip, CLIQ / DEXT (Morrison), CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), Eclair 2.1, Motorola

Motorola has, once again, updated its timeline for device upgrades and has changed the expected Android 2.1 update time for the CLIQ, CLIQ XT, and the Backflip to be late Q3 to early Q4 of this year.

This is supposedly good news, but haven't CLIQ/CLIQ XT/Backflip users already waited long enough? Motorola seems to be throwing salt in customers' wounds by pushing this upgrade back. Not only do the owners of these devices now have to wait longer for an update, but the update they are waiting for has already become antiquated.

While Motorola's flagship devices have been receiving updates all over the place to the CURRENT (2.2) version of Android, and the CLIQ, Backflip, and CLIQ XT aren't really what we would call "flaghship", their users seem to have been abandoned from day one with only hope keeping them warm.

Sep

GPS Fix For CyanogenMod 6 On The Nexus One

Posted by Brian O'Toole in News, Nexus One (Passion)

Last Updated: September 15th, 2010

One of the most common complaints about the recent builds of CyanogenMod 6 has been that Nexus One owners’ GPS would suddenly take ages to get a fix or wouldn't get a fix at all. The most frequent solution posted has been to change your Mobile Network APN type to “default,supl” to enable A-GPS through your cellular network. However, for some people this still didn’t solve the problem, including myself.

Well, today on the CM forums, user kursed posted a fix that may be the end of many frustrated N1-ers’ woes. The fix involves resetting your location data using GPS Status with your SIM card removed, getting a fix, and then restarting your phone with the SIM inserted and getting a fix again.

Sep

Scoreloop Adds PayPal Payment Solution - Hello Google? You Home?

Posted by Andrew Huff in Apps/Games, Games, News

While we all wait for Google to officially institute PayPal as a payment option in the Android Market, Scoreloop has decided to beat Google to it by including it in their latest update. Developers who use Scoreloop with their games can now use PayPal to offer in-game purchases to gamers.

Freemium

In-game purchasing is the key to many games success, and its implementation is essential if Google would like to lure developers to their platform. This business model, known as Freemium, allows gamers to get the full version of a game that would otherwise be a paid application and in exchange, the developer can offer premium in-game content for a fee.

Sep

HTC Desire Goes White, Wildfire Goes Silver, We Go GaGa

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), HTC, News

If you read our review of the HTC Desire, you'll already know that the physical design of the phone is hardly the first thing that needs to be changed.

Regardless, we can't complain about the changes HTC is rumored to be making here:

Yep, what we're looking at is a white version of the Desire, and even though I'm not exactly known to go crazy over white gadgets (especially when they're phones), I've got to admit this one's pretty hot.

As you can see, HTC is also making a silver (and possibly aluminum!) version of the Wildfire. While not as exciting as the white Desire, it's still something to look forward to...if, that is, you live in the UK, for Android Community informs us that the two devices will be sold exclusively at The Carphone Warehouse, a UK-only retailer.

Sep

Best Buy Pre-Order Of T-Mobile G2 Starts Tomorrow: $200 With Contract, Available October 6

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in G2 (Vision), News, T-Mobile

This morning, T-Mobile sent out the press release officially announcing the T-Mobile G2. The release mentioned that the phone would be available for pre-order in limited quantites for existing T-Mobile customers later this month - but that doesn't quite jibe with the fact that Best Buy's pre-sale begins tomorrow for a very reasonable $200 (with 2 year contract, obviously). They even mention an official release date: October 6.

The specs are in the announcement link and picture above, but in case you're too lazy to read, here's a brief rehash:

800 MHz CPU (new Snapdragon architecture)
3.7" 480x800 screen
Slide-out four row QWERTY keyboard
HSPA+

Personally, I'm just waiting to see how that new Snapdragon CPU stacks up to its higher-clocked siblings, and how well it overclocks.

Sep

That Was Quick - Samsung Fascinate Rooted On Launch Day

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Eclair 2.1, Fascinate, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

It's never long before a phone is rooted, especially not if a member of xda-developers can help it.

Well, it looks like Samsung and Verizon's latest baby, the Fascinate, is no exception, as Dirrk, Junior Member of (you guessed it!) xda-developers has just hacked the device into running the Superuser app...aka rooting it. Don't take my word for it though, check out the guide below:

adb push su /sdcard/su
adb push rage.bin /data/local/tmp/rage.bin
adb push busybox /sdcard/busybox

adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp
chmod 0755 rage.bin
./rage.bin

wait....
when it brings you back to your original shell or windows cmd promt

adb shell

mount -t rfs -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl9 /system

cd /system/xbin
cat /sdcard/su > .

Sep

Google Teaches Us To "Walk This Way" With Google Maps 4.5

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Google, News

Google's on a roll today with app updates; first it was the new Google Voice featuring not one, but two widgets, and now they're rolling out a new version of Google Maps which promises to teach us to "walk this way."

The update includes a feature called "Walking Navigation," which is essentially turn-by-turn navigation, only for pedestrians and not drivers. It is now able to:

provide up-to-the minute walking directions to from where you stand now to your destination, complete with blue and white arrows to indicate where you stand and where you should go
provide more direct routes
offer voice guidance (which can be turned off)
a map that rotates as you rotate
turn on satellite imagery by default
vibrate your phone when you need to make a turn

Revolutionary it may not be, but it's certainly an improvement over the feature it replaces, "Walking Directions."

Also new is the Google Maps search bar, which allows you to:

start searching for a place
open Places
use the Layers menu
find yourself on the map with My Location
filter search results by distance or ratings
view prices categorized by dollar signs
see cross streets for places

In one final change, Google's gone and revamped Street View.

Sep

Getting Down And Dirty With IDEOS: Tech Specs On Huawei's Sub-$200 (Retail) Android Phone

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Huawei, News, T-Mobile

Admittedly, posting news on a comparatively lame Android phone is somewhat out of character for us; even more so, nerding out over the hardware of yesteryear. That said, there's a lot of value to be found among the masses in cheap, capable goods such as the upcoming Huawei IDEOS, a 2.8" Android 2.2 phone. The kicker? Rumor pegs the price at less than $200 - conceivably low enough to be used for prepaid plans.

Typical prepaid user.

We didn't see the tech specs anywhere, so we pinged Huawei for additional details. They aren't necessarily mind-blowing, but again, for less than $200, what do you expect?