15
Apr
samsung-logo

[Rumor] Samsung To Continue Leaving Bootloaders Unlocked On Future Devices

Posted by in Development, News, Samsung

It appears that Samsung may be following in Sony's footsteps by actually giving users what they want where bootloaders are concerned. According to this tweet from Android app developer Supercurio, a source at Samsung has stated that bootloaders on future Sammy devices will be unlocked as long as Google doesn't require otherwise. If true, this means really good things for the dev community, who will never have to deal with the trials and tribulations that tech-savvy Motorola owners have had to face.

tweet 1

François went on to say that this may or may not apply to tablets, as they're "still young" and his source "doesn't know about bootloader plans for those devices."

Of course, as with any rumor, we question its validity.

15
Apr
GoogleMusic

Editorial: Google's Music Talks Aren't Going Well - Will Music Be Too Little, Too Late?

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials, News

To answer the question, briefly: nobody really knows at this point. But I do think Google is going to have to make some sacrifices in the short term if the Music service is going to get off the ground. And that's because the record labels won't play ball - at least not by Google's rules according to All Things D, quoting two apparently well-connected sources.

Of course, the words of a couple anonymous music industry insiders aren't definitively representative of the feelings of all the (presumably numerous) parties involved in Google's Music negotiations. For all we know, those persons could be part of some of the industry's historically more stubborn labels.

15
Apr
sprint-logo-green

Andy Is Green, Violets Are Blue, And With The Sprint Replenish, You Can Be Green Too

Posted by in News, Replenish, Samsung, Sprint

The Green movement seems to be on the rise with smartphones lately (remember the Motorola Citrus?) - Sprint announced today that it has teamed up with Samsung to do their part in helping out too. The first eco-friendly Android phone to hit its network will be the Samsung Replenish, made of 34.6% recycled plastic, sporting an energy efficient charger, and packaging made from 80% recycled material marked with soy ink.

It's a candybar style phone, with a 2.8 inch screen and a full keyboard, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 2MP camera, a 2GB SD card, runs Android 2.2 and is powered by a 600MHz processor.

15
Apr
samsung-logo

Samsung Is On A Roll: Two Kernel Source Code Releases In As Many Days (Droid Charge And Fascinate Froyo)

Posted by in Charge (i510), Development, Fascinate, News

We all know about the update woes that owners of Samsung handsets have faced over the past several months - owners of the VZW Fascinate are still waiting on their update to Froyo. It looks that wait may be coming to an end as the source code has finally shown up on Samsung's Open Source Release Center. Even if the official OTA doesn't hit phones soon, you can rest assured that XDA devs will be hard at work hacking and compiling this source, so you'll be able to enjoy all of the Froyo goodness that you can handle soon enough.

15
Apr
HTC-Desire-HD

Pyramid/Sensation Ports Are Starting To Show Up, Desire HD First In Line

Posted by in Desire HD (Ace), Development, News, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid)
Last Updated: April 18th, 2011

Let's go back in time for a moment, shall we? Think with me, if you will, back to when we first told you about the Sensation ROM leak. Do you remember? Ah, the nostalgia. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were trying to get the download mirror set up so all the devs could get to work on porting this ROM to other devices and... Oh, yes. It was just yesterday.

It didn't take long for the first port of this smokin' new ROM to show up, and thanks to XDA member capychimp, the lucky winner of said ROM is the Desire HD.

15
Apr
image

Interview And FAQ With PowerAMP For Android Creator Maxim Petrov - An Insight Into The Life Of A Top Android Developer

Posted by in Applications, Interviews, News
Last Updated: April 18th, 2011

PowerAMP for Android appeared seemingly out of nowhere one day as a leaked beta and immediately captured attention of thousands of Android users who were impressed by its initial features, good looks, and overall polish. Fast forward to today - PowerAMP is one of the best selling Android apps in the Market with a 4.6-4.8-star rating, even at ~$4.99, which is considered pretty pricey for an app.

We sat down with Max Petrov, PowerAMP's sole developer, to discuss Android development, PowerAMP, the Market, and everything related. The interview, carried out by me (Artem), is below (with minor formatting and grammatical edits approved by Maxim; also, this was not a translation - Max spoke English).

15
Apr
g2x

T-Mobile (LG) G2x Now Available For Pre-Order Online: $200 After MIR, Shipping April 20

Posted by in G2x (p999), News, T-Mobile
Last Updated: April 20th, 2011

As expected, the LG Optimus 2X is finally available in the States courtesy of T-Mobile, who is dubbing it the T-Mobile G2x. At $250 less a $50 mail-in-rebate, the phone is largely in-line with the pricing for other flagship devices, and with all that horsepower inside, seems fairly reasonable.

A quick rundown of the specs:

  • 1 GHz dual core Tegra 2 processor
  • 4-inch display
  • Android 2.2 with plans to upgrade to Android 2.3
  • 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera
  • HSPA+ (T-Mobile 4G)
  • HDMI
  • 1080p video playback
  • 1,500 mAh battery
  • microSD card slot

You may remember that prior reviews found the hardware to be excellent but found some shortcomings in the software; hopefully LG and T-Mobile have managed to make some improvements on that front in the past two months.

14
Apr
andy_eating_world1

Google Says Over 3 Billion Android Apps Have Been Installed And 350,000 Devices Are Being Activated Per Day

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

On their earnings call today, Google revealed some impressive stats about Android, courtesy of Jeff Huber, Senior VP of Commerce and Local. There were three notable facts, in particular: there have been over 3 billion Android apps installed, downloads of Android apps are up 50% in the last quarter, and 350,000 Android devices are being activated per day. Whoa, whoa, and whoa.

Given that we've heard about the massive number of activations before, perhaps the most impressive numbers are those about apps. As TechCrunch so eloquently puts it: "The first billion installs took 20 months, the second billion installs took another 5 months, and the third billion took only 2 months." Given that downloads jumped a ridiculous 50% in the past three months, it the next 3 billion will likely happen in no time at all.

14
Apr
android_soldier

Follow Up: Business Insider Closes Smartphone Survey, Starts A (Nearly) Identical One With A Less Moronic Name

Posted by in Android OS, News

Over the weekend, we posted about a pant-crappingly stupid (and biased) survey posted by Silicon Alley Insider called "WHY WOULD ANYONE EVER BUY AN ANDROID PHONE? Take Our Smartphone Survey And Tell Us!" A few dozen of you posted in the comments to criticize just how biased SAI was with the survey, and a large number of you followed through to take it.

It looks like they may have realized the faux pas - to an extent, anyway - as they closed that one down (without tabulating the results) and reopened a new one. On the upside, the new survey has a new title: "OUR SMARTPHONE SURVEY: Please Take It!

14
Apr
andy_gbread

Official Gingerbread Build Leaks For HTC EVO 4G, Mirrored For The World To Enjoy

Posted by in EVO 4G (Supersonic), Gingerbread 2.3, News, Sprint

It's been a few weeks since the deluge of Gingerbread builds leaked on March 27 (Droid X, Droid 2, Galaxy S i9000), but now another big dog is looking to join the party: a test Android 2.3 ROM for the HTC EVO has leaked and been posted to the XDA forums. A ton of people have taken the bait, with the thread already checking in at over 73 pages long - and it's only been up for about 6 hours.

I haven't had time to go through the whole thread, obviously, but user quocamole was kind enough to post a quick good/bad list:

some quick initial impressions:

good:
-2.3.3!

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