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Apr

One Size Does Not Fit All: Andy Rubin Responds To Recent Cases Of Misinformation And FUD In The Press

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News

Android In Recent News

Fragmentation has been one of the biggest criticisms of the Android platform. Essentially, Google allows anybody to take the Android code and tweak it suit their own needs. This is how manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung are able to create custom layers (MotoBlur, Sense UI, and TouchWiz, respectively) over the vanilla Android interface and how some carriers load up new phones with crapware. Although this is a price to pay for openness and customizability, a recent study indicates that 86% of developers are unhappy with the state of Android fragmentation (24% of them describing it as a "huge problem").

Apr

T-Mobile Confirms LG G2x And Sidekick 4G Release Dates: Both In Stores On April 20th

Posted by Cameron Summerson in G2x (p999), News, Sidekick 4G, T-Mobile

Thanks to Radio Shack, it's no surprise that the Sidekick 4G is hitting the sales floor on April 20th for $99, but T-Mobile has finally made an official announcement via its Twitter page. In the interest of consolidation, it was also announced that the LG G2x would be available in-store for $199 after a $50 mail in rebate, but If you just can't wait to get your hands it, you'll be able to grab it online starting April 15th.

If you need a quick refresher on the specs of these two devices, here you go:

LG G2x

1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor
512MB RAM
8GB internal memory
8MP rear camera/1.3MP front camera
4 inch screen
Android 2.2

Samsung Sidekick 4G

1GHz Hummingbird processor
3MP rear camera/0.3MP front camera
Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
3.5 Inch screen
Android 2.2

So, which device do you choose - the oh-so-classic feel of the Sidekick and deal with the subpar camera, or go all out and rock the dual-core G2x?

Apr

For The Scientist In You - Today's Free Premium Amazon Appstore App Is Wolfram Alpha (Normally $1.99) [4/7/11]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Could it be? Is Amazon offering another useful app that I actually want to own for the 2nd day in a row? That's pretty much a first so far, with the Shazam Encore/SwiftKey tag team being a close second. What makes today's deal especially valuable is that there is no free version of Wolfram Alpha at all, so combined with 4.7 stars and over 1,800 reviews in the official Market, getting today's free app right away is pretty much a no-brainer.

When Wolfram Alpha was introduced back in 2009, it sent shockwaves through the Internet and the scientific community due to its incredible artificial intelligence and instant usefulness in myriads of both highly scientific and day-to-day computations.

Apr

Fun With Google's Mobile Easter Eggs - Try Searching For "Tilt," "Askew," Or "Crooked" In Your Mobile Browser

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, Off-Topic

April Fools' passed a long time ago but users are discovering a few jokes that decided to stick around, such as what happens when you search Google on your phone for any of these words:

tilt
askew
crooked

To preserve the lulz and save you some time, here is what you currently observe:

If you want to try this out for yourself without pulling out your mobile, you can just head over to this forced mobile version instead: http://www.google.com/xhtml?q=crooked

Keep it up, Google! Not many large companies out there will ever put Easter eggs like this one into their flagship products, even on April Fool's day.

Apr

[App Review] Join.me Is A Clean, Easy Way To Share Your Screen From Desktop To Phone

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you have ever tried to do tech support for someone on the go, needed to remotely see how exactly somebody did something on their computer, or found it necessary to view another person's screen from your smartphone for some other reason, you're already well aware of the frustration that arises from not having your computer handy. Fortunately for you, you've got an Android phone, and I've got the perfect tool for you.

Join.me, a sweet program designed by those crazy screen-sharing, remote-controlling, virtual LAN-creating programaholics at LogMeIn, allows you to either share your computer screen or view people sharing their screens from anywhere.

Apr

Editorial: Motorola XOOM Sales Estimated At 100,000 So Far - Does It Really Matter?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, XOOM

No doubt you've seen at least one mention of the 100,000-XOOM sales figure somewhere on the web today - and for me, it has reached the point of mild annoyance. From this number, all sorts of wild extrapolations and theories are being tossed around about Motorola's future, Android's future, and the viability of tablets in an Apple-dominated market.

Boy Genius Report took a step back, and presented a level-headed but clearly pro-XOOM take on the news:

So, according to Deutsche Bank, Motorola has sold 100,000 XOOM tablets in less than a month and a half, which is an average of over 75,000 units per month.

Apr

32 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps, Games, And Live Wallpapers From Last Week (3/30/11 - 4/6/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: April 13th, 2011

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous week's roundup? Find it here: 48 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps, Games, And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (3/16/11 – 3/29/11)

Featured App

Today’s roundup is sponsored by XIMAD and their game Brain Cube HD Premium. Brain Cube is a brain twisting puzzle game of rolling blocks with great graphics.

Apr

HTC HD7 - Windows Phone 7 + Android = Video Awesomeness

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Development, News

Ah, Android hackers. Aren't they the best? They take our beloved operating system and install it on everything possible! Most recently, they have managed to evict Windows Phone 7 from the HD7 and replace it with the little green robot. Have a look at this hot video action:

Pretty slick, right? While I'm not sure that there is any practical reason behind doing this, it's always cool to see Andy kicking ass where he wasn't meant to be.

Source: MobileCrunch

Apr

The GO Dev Team Is On Fire, GO Keyboard Hits The Market

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

I don't think that these guys ever sleep! Yesterday we told you about GO Score and now we're back with yet another app from the GO Dev Team: GO Keyboard. Already touted as the "best and most popular keyboard in the Android Market", the numbers speak for themselves - it has a stellar 0 star rating out of a massive 6 downloads!

Seriously, though, it incorporates the most common features of other Android keyboards, like skinning, "accurate dictionaries", autocorrect, text prediction in multiple languages, and more. Currently supported languages are English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese but, with the current version only at 0.0.6, something tells me there will be a lot more languages and features to come.

Apr

Motorola Droid X2 Benchmarks Confirm Tegra 2 Processor And qHD Display

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Droid X2, News, Rumors, Verizon Wireless

The rumors surrounding the Droid X2's hardware have been kind of sporadic, but it looks like we are starting to get a more definite look at what will be packed under the hood of this device. Some benchmarks that have appeared over at Nenamark are basically confirming the presence of a Tegra 2 dual-core processor and a qHD display, the latter via the device's reported resolution of 960x540.

This new information suggests the device is most likely a finished product and that release is upon us, making a launch sometime in May seem even more plausible.

Source: Nenemark via Droid Life