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Mar

HTC Representative: Gingerbread Hitting HTC ThunderBolt In Q2 2011

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Here's some news that ought to make ThunderBolt owners smile: an HTC representative reportedly told a customer that Gingerbread will be made available for Verizon's new flagship phone in - wait for it - Q2.

According to Droid Life, John (or rudyt83) emailed HTC customer support after experiencing some issues with Bluetooth on his new ThunderBolt. HTC's (rather lengthy) response included this little nugget of information:

We are excited to announce that the Thunderbolt will receive the Gingerbread (Android 2.3) update in Q2 2011. Stay tuned for details as we get closer to the update availability.

The rep proceeded to list features added in Gingerbread, though the similarity to Google's own Android 2.3 changelog leads us to believe that the additions aren't specific to the ThunderBolt.

Mar

[Weekend Poll] Now That The Amazon App Store Is Here, What Are Your Thoughts?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see AT&T Is Buying T-Mobile USA; As The Dust Settles, What Are Your Thoughts?

We saw it coming from a mile away (and knew all the details), and now it's finally happened: the Amazon Appstore officially launched on Tuesday, March 22. So far, with the exception of a minor hiccup, it looks like the launch has been fairly smooth. Now that you've had a few days to test the waters, we'd like to know what your thoughts are on the Appstore.

As always, you can vote in the poll below, and we encourage you to drop us a line in the comments to voice your opinion.

Mar

[Tutorial] How To "Un-Root" The HTC ThunderBolt And Return It To Stock

Posted by Justin Case in Development, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless

One of the most popular questions about rooting the ThunderBolt is how to undo the process and return to stock, which renews your eligibility for customer support. Well, here you go:

Instructions

Please read the whole tutorial first, and pay attention to every detail. Note that your battery needs to be charged to at least 40% at the beginning of the process, and remember to check the MD5 sums of all downloaded files before diving in. As always, neither Android Police nor Team AndIRC are responsible for any damage this may cause to your phone, and, needless to say, returning to stock means you will no longer be able to use root apps like ShootMe and Titanium Backup.

Mar

Amazon Is On A Roll: Today's Free Premium Android Appstore App - SwiftKey Keyboard

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Deals, News

Without taking a break from yesterday's free Shazam Encore deal, Amazon is continuing its daily giveaway of awesome premium Android apps with another one of our favorites - SwiftKey Keyboard.

SwiftKey normally costs $1.99 in the Android Market ($1.79 in the Amazon Appstore), but for the next 24 hours, U.S. residents will be able to download it to their Digital Lockers for free, thereby claiming it forever. Even if you are not a fan of SwiftKey just yet, there is no reason to pass on this deal if you can get it - just do it now, then think and decide later.

Mar

AT&T Confirms That The Atrix And The Inspire Will Receive HSUPA-Enabling Updates In April

Posted by Nate Kimmey in AT&T, Atrix 4G (Olympus), News

Motorola Atrix and HTC Inspire owners have had good reason to be upset with AT&T's "4G" network - due to the fact that HSUPA wasn't enabled on either of the two devices, users have been plagued with unbearably low upload speeds, and the announcement of an upcoming Atrix update that ignores the problem didn't seem like a good sign. Fortunately, AT&T has used its Facebook page to confirm that software updates enabling normal upload speeds are in the works and are expected to roll out some time in April.

AT&T also dropped some good news regarding the Samsung Infuse: the handset will launch with HSUPA already enabled, so nobody will have to wait for an update from Samsung there.

Mar

PSA: AT&T And T-Mobile HSPA+ Are Not Compatible, Your Current 4G HSPA+ Phone Will Not Be Covered By Both

Posted by David Ruddock in AT&T, Editorials, T-Mobile, Tips & Tutorials

Wondering if you should be considering that T-Mobile 4G phone purchase now that the merger plan has come to light? Read on.

With the news of the AT&T / T-Mobile merger spreading like wildfire, there have been rumblings about the network compatibility implications of the deal. More accurately, how the merger will affect consumers' use of 4G handsets on their respective carriers.

Make no mistake - it has been confirmed that AT&T will slowly disassemble T-Mobile's 4G HSPA+ network over time, converting those HSPA+ bands (the "AWS" spectrum) into LTE frequencies. Consumers without at least a Wikipedia-level of 4G knowledge will likely ask why this is necessary if both carriers already use HSPA+ "4G."

They may know that it's generally not possible to use a T-Mobile phone to get 3G while on AT&T, and vice versa.

Mar

Launcher Wall For Android Review: A Poor Man’s Windows Phone 7

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Are you one of the many that likes the look of Windows Phone 7, but doesn’t want to give up your existing launcher in lieu of a WP7 lookalike? If so, we have an app for you. It’s called Launcher Wall and feels similar to Windows Phone 7, without duplicating the interface.

Launcher Wall is an interactive live wallpaper comprised of customizable, animated tile-style icons with an animated background. It is pretty straightforward; each tile corresponds to a user defined app in which you can change the size, placement, angle, size, transparency, and animation. At the time of writing this, there is no way to change the tile image or disable all animations, so expect to see some movement even if the animation is turned all the way down.

Mar

Update: Sprint Announces No Mail-In Rebates Through April 16th

Posted by David Ruddock in Carriers, News, Sprint, Tips & Tutorials

Update: An anonymous Sprint tipster has told us this deal will only last through April 16th - Sprint is probably trying to clear out its current stock of EVOs and soon-to-be-discontinued devices.

If you were pondering buying a Sprint Android phone this weekend, it may be wise to hold off for a couple more days - Sprint has announced to Phonescoop that devices currently offering mail-in rebates will switch to an "instant savings" model starting Sunday. That means no forms to fill out, and no rebate checks to wait for. Verizon recently canned its mail-in rebate offers in favor of the same system, so it seems logical that the US's other major CDMA carrier is following suit.

Mar

Amazon Appstore's Free Premium App Of The Day: Shazam Encore (Normally $5)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Deals, News

To those who can access it (read: U.S. users), the Amazon Appstore may seem like one of the best things since sliced bread - it trumps Google's own web-based Android Market in almost every way. One of such differentiating features is the Goldbox-like Free Premium App of the Day concept that, like Groupon and its competitors, was introduced to provide great deals to consumers and giant spikes in traffic to app developers.

Of course, it was no surprise that the first such premium app given away was Angry Birds: Rio (though, it remains free to this day and was clearly more of a marketing ploy), but the next few apps were not really that exciting.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.