Found 468 articles
09
Sep
P9060174_1

Motorola Charm Review: The Pixel-Faced Killah

Posted by in CHARM, Eclair 2.1, Motorola, Phone Reviews, Reviews, T-Mobile
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

 P9060178_1 P9060204

Getting my hands on the Charm was no mean feat. Motorola didn’t seem keen to send out review units to anyone in a hurry, so I took it upon myself to go buy one, under the pretext of it being a gift for my girlfriend (she has a Nokia 1661 for chrissakes).

That in itself was quite a quest, as not a single store in the state of Maine seemed to have one in stock. Several broken promises later, and I was on the bus to Boston, having been assured that there were “less than 10” units in stock in T-Mobile’s downtown store.

28
Aug
CM1

CyanogenMod 6.0 Final Released

Posted by in Aria (Liberty), Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Development, Dream, Droid (Sholes), EVO 4G (Supersonic), Hero, Hero (Sprint, HeroC), Incredible, myTouch 3G (Magic), News, Nexus One (Passion), Sapphire, Vibrant

Looks like CyanogenMod 6, Android's most popular ROM, has made its way out of the RC's and into final release. I've been running CM6 on my EVO for a little over a month now, and I love it. And as most people know, CM6 now covers a fair number of devices:

The above links lead to the CM6 info/download post on CM forums. The devices with no hyperlink don't have CM6 final yet - though they may have experimental builds (for example, the Incredible is on RC3). Heads-up though, it looks like there are a ton of people downloading - I'm getting 23 KBPS right now.

25
Aug
t-mobile-g2-itw-2-04

T-Mobile G2 Running On New MSM7X30 Chipset: Native 720P 30FPS Recording And Playback, Better 3D Performance And More

Posted by in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, G2 (Vision), HTC, T-Mobile
Last Updated: August 27th, 2010

Based on a tweet by Cyanogen, the G2 isn't going to be sporting another rehash of the Snapdragon family of chipsets that has come to dominate HTC devices for the past 6 months.

You may remember back in November of 2009 (or maybe not, I didn't) that Qualcomm demoed an updated family of chipsets for mobile multimedia devices. The name of that chipset is the remarkably catchy MSM7X30 (really has a ring to it, no?), and it's bringing a little more to the table than its predecessors.

We already knew the G2 would be shipping with HSPA+ connectivity (the first phone to have it), but that's only one of the goodies Qualcomm's upgraded chipset will be offering:

  • 720P video encoding (recording) and decoding at 30FPS
  • Integrated 2D/3D GPU's with OpenGL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1 API support
  • 5.1 surround sound output
  • Up to 12 megapixel camera support
  • Integrated GPS
  • Support for processor speeds between 800MHz and 1GHz (Scorpion CPU's, same as Snapdragon's)

All of this considered, the G2's spec sheet could really cause some heads to explode.

24
Aug
image

Android Gets App-Switching Eye Candy: Visual Task Switcher Now Available On The Market

Posted by in Applications, News

One of the most vaunted features of webOS was its decidedly pretty multitasking interface. Users could invoke an overlay of thumbnail “cards” of their running applications and switch to or close them.

Fresh onto the Android Marketplace is Visual Task Switcher. Continuing on from some progress made earlier this year (although probably not using the same method), this application grants you thumbnail application switching. While not as polished as Palm’s version, this is an encouraging step towards that alluring goal.

image

Users can switch to a running application by tapping the thumbnail, or kill it by long-pressing.

Visual Task Switcher allows multiple pages of grid thumbnails which can be scrolled through by swiping.

21
Aug
Capture

Coming Soon: Stock Android 2.1 For Samsung Galaxy S

Posted by in Development, Eclair 2.1, Galaxy S, News, Videos

It seems a few community developers (@barakinflorida) have been inching towards releasing a functional, bone stock version of Android 2.1 for the Samsung Galaxy S (That is, without Samsung's TouchWiz interface). Their efforts are paying off, as this video shows.

The only big issues remaining lie in getting the camera/camcorder to actually, well, work. A relatively minor inconvenience, and a problem many developers have struggled with when developing full-ROM releases for phones with UI overlays.

Android 2.1 is starting to seem a little dated to be utilizing for development of ROMs - maybe a stock FroYo update will follow?  But now that members of the CyanogenMod team are working on a CM6 build for the Galaxy S, it's hard to say if there will be much demand for a stock Froyo.

21
Aug
hd2_cm6_1

Android On HTC HD2? That’s So Last Month - Try CyanogenMod 6 On HD2

Posted by in Development, HD2, News

Ok, so this is technically “so last month” too - it’s from July 30, and we just happened to miss it the first time around. Luckily for us, good ole’ ChiefzReloaded tweeted (or retweeted?) some pictures of CM6 running on the HD2. After doing a little poking around, I found that there’s a pretty solid build out there - it’s even CM6 RC1. As a result, nearly everything works on the device: GPS, camera (with flash), torch (for the camera LED), Adobe Flash, and so on. Nice.

hd2_cm6_2

At 15 steps, installation is far from simple - but it’s pretty comparable to manual rooting/ROMing on Android.

19
Aug
nief_ss

EVO Owners Benchmark 10 Custom ROMs, 1 Stock ROM

Posted by in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Sprint, Tips & Tutorials

This has got to be one of the most useful things I’ve seen in my tenure here, although I may be biased because I own an EVO. XDA forum member nief1313 is in the (very slow) process of compiling the results of testing and benchmarking a ton of EVO ROMs. When I say a ton, I mean 11:

  1. Stock Froyo
  2. CyanogenMod 6 RC2
  3. DamageControl 3.5
  4. Fresh EVO 3.1.0.1
  5. BakedSnack 1.2.5
  6. Burnt Droid 1.0
  7. EViO 2 Series v1.0.2
  8. EViO 2 Series v1.1
  9. Ava-FroyoV3RevA
  10. OMJ’s v2.1
  11. FroYo Fusion 2.3

Quite the comprehensive list, and a popular one at that: as I write this, there 27 people are viewing the spreadsheet.

18
Aug
Droid X Custom Recovery

Koush Releases Custom ClockworkMod Recovery For Motorola Droid X - Nandroid Backups And Restores Now Possible; Next Stop: Custom ROMs

Posted by in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, Verizon Wireless

This article mentions rooting, Nandroid, and flashing of custom ROMs. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers on rooting, custom ROMs, and Nandroid backups.

The Droid X, Motorola's and Verizon's current flagship handset, has been rooted earlier this month (method 1, method 2), and today Koushik Dutta, the author of ClockworkMod recovery and the lead developer behind CM6 for Droid, released the first working recovery for this beast.

This means that users can now easily back up and restore their handsets using Nandroid backup, whether to get back to a certain state in the past or to roll back to a good state due to accidental "bricking" - a situation which is common for those treading in the undocumented territory that is the Droid X internals.

16
Aug
image

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Sheds Beta Status - Available For Download On Nexus Ones Running Froyo

Posted by in Applications, News

It’s been a while coming, but Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 has now ditched its Beta status. Released today to coincide with the ongoing Adobe conference in San Francisco, Flash Player 10.1.92.8 is available in the market for compatible devices, namely Nexus Ones running Froyo. As with all Market releases, there are some quirks with the releases availability, so don’t be surprised if it’s not appearing for you even though it should be. Hopefully the other Froyo-running devices out there will be seeing Adobe Flash Player pop up in the market over the next few days and weeks, and all you risk-takers out there with CyanogenMod 6 ROMs and ARM v7 processors should be seeing it available for download too.

16
Aug

The Eye Escapes - Get Droid 2 Live Wallpapers On Your Android Phone

Posted by in Development, Droid 2, Motorola, Verizon Wireless
Last Updated: August 17th, 2010

It happened to the Droid X, it happened to the Galaxy S, and now it's happening to the Droid 2. The Droid 2's live wallpaper, the one with the evil red eye, has been extracted and is ready to be used on any other device running Android 2.0 or above.

Oh, and as if that wasn't enough, it now comes in nine versions, including:

  • the original wallpaper
  • modified versions called Evil Andy and Evil Grey Andy
  • a mod with the eye from the Droid X, only on the Droid 2's background image
  • a Cyanogen Mod themed one
  • a BlackDroid edition
  • a green theme
  • a gold theme
  • and a wallpaper where the eye is from the Droid 2 and the background is from the Droid X.

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