Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Prepare To Groan: Verizon Exec Says HTC Thunderbolt To Arrive "By The End Of The Second Quarter"

Posted by Will Shanklin in HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Yesterday, we heard that yet another (unconfirmed) HTC Thunderbolt "release date" was a big dud, but today, we have some even more disappointing news for eager LTE customers: Verizon chief technology officer Tony Melone said that customers will have 4G phones in their hands "by the end of the second quarter." Yes, that would mean by the end of June - probably not anytime soon. While Melone intended to highlight their pursuit of excellence in this interview, I think most of us can already hear the collective groan from Verizon customers who have been anticipating the upcoming HTC Thunderbolt.

This from Melone:

I guess our expectations change, but we had said first half of this year at CES, quite frankly, we think that exceeded people’s expectations.

Mar

Apple Envy Begone! Pocket Legends Is More Profitable On Android Than On iOS

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, Games, News

Calling all Android fanboys: we have some news that might make you puff your chest out a little bit more than usual today. Spacetime Studios, developer of the popular cross-platform game Pocket Legends, says that they make more money from Android than they do from iOS.

The studio claims that daily activity on Android is double that of iOS - in fact, they say the online RPG is downloaded about 9,000 times a day on Android, compared to 3,000-4,000 times per day on iOS. Android users play the game about three times more than Apple's gamers (which is a major statistic considering the majority of their profit comes from in-app purchases).

Mar

Want A Google Voice Home Phone Line? Teltub Will Do It For $5/Month With gHome

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

With cell phones being so completely immersed in our daily lives that many of us can hardly remember a time when we didn't use them, home phone lines have increasingly gone the way of the dodo. With monthly cellular bills that frequently top $100, having another expense for something that is deemed largely unnecessary just doesn't compute. Innovative communications company Teltub is attempting to bring back the home phone line by using Google Voice to give users home VoIP service for a mere $5 per month.

The service, which launched in January, requires a Google Voice number, an internet connection, and a VoIP adapter (no computer or phone line of any kind required). The adapter can be purchased separately and setup using gHome's tutorial, or you can pay $50 extra to have them provide it for you.

Mar

Opera Gets Into The Android Web Apps Game With Opera Mobile Store

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

Opera Software, makers of the popular browsers for desktops and mobile devices, today unveiled a mobile storefront for web apps called the Opera Mobile Store. The store, which racked up 15 million users during its February beta release, is available now on Android (as well as several other mobile operating systems).

Applications will be purchased, installed, and run via Opera's mobile browsers (Opera Mini or Opera Mobile). Opera's store is powered by web app company Appia, whose storefront commerce system will be used for payments. An Opera Publisher Portal, a platform for developers to create and dispense their apps, was released simultaneously.

Mar

Google Squashes A Potentially Serious Bug In The Android Market

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

Google has responded to the alarm raised by an Android security expert of a bug related to the Android Market that could have caused a lot of trouble. The security hole was related to the recent implementation of the Android Web Market, and would have given hackers the ability to install malicious software fairly easily.

Co-founder and chief technology officer at Duo Security Jon Oberheide discovered the flaw last month and notified Google, who fixed it within "the last week or so." Users would have merely had to click on a malicious link on either their phones or on their desktops to activate the unwanted installation of rogue software.

Mar

Google Instant Previews Are Now Mobile

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

If you have used Google in the last few months, you may have noticed a new feature that allows you to see a small preview of a web page in search results without having to click on it. This feature, Google Instant Previews, is now available on Google mobile versions of Google search.

From the Google Mobile Developers' Blog:

"For example, if you’re looking for a webpage that has both photos and descriptions, you can use Instant Previews to quickly identify these pages by navigating across the visual search results with a few swipes of your finger. Or perhaps you’re looking for an article, a step-by-step instructions list, or a product comparison chart—with Instant Previews, you can see easily spot pages with the right content without having to navigate back and forth between websites and search results.

Mar

Your Phone Will Soon Vibrate More Intelligently - Immersion Haptic Feedback SDK Released

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

Last month we told you about the Immersion MOTIV platform, which would allow developers to have much more control over the way phones use haptic feedback (the way your phone vibrates). Up to this point, Android haptic feedback has been a very cut and dry affair: it turns on, it turns off, sometimes it's on a little longer, and sometimes it isn't. Immersion, the SDK of which is now available, gives devs the tools to make this a much more varied experience.

Say you are playing a console video game like Uncharted 2 on the PS3. Your controller will vibrate in response to what is going on around you.

Mar

Could Sprint And T-Mobile Be Merging?

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors

News comes this morning that Deutsche Telekom has been having talks to sell its T-Mobile US unit to Sprint in a deal that would combine the third and fourth largest US carriers. Deutsche Telekom would reportedly still have "a major stake" in the newly merged company, so this would be seen as more of a merger than a selloff.

Deutsche Telekom Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Hoettges said about the possible deal: "In general, all options are open in the U.S. -- the sale of the whole business or of parts." Business Week reports that the talks have been on and off and that one of the biggest hindrances to a deal has been the failure to come to a mutual agreement about the value of T-Mobile.

Mar

[Updated: Now With EVO View 4G Trademark Filing] Sprint's Own Website All But Confirms The Rumored Nexus S 4G, EVO 3D, And EVO View Devices

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 3D (Shooter), EVO View 4G, HTC, News, Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), Rumors, Samsung, Sprint

Sprint has been mum about its 2011 lineup throughout this whole year until yesterday, when we finally got a break and caught wind of not 1 but 3 upcoming Sprint Android devices - the Nexus S 4G, the EVO 3D, and the EVO View tablet. The rumors were dropped to both Engadget and AndroidAndMe by an anonymous tipster, but both sites seemed confident in their sources, meaning it wasn't the first time the same credible tipster provided reliable information.

If you are sensitive to unconfirmed rumors and have trouble believing anonymous tipsters, even you will be pleased with what these pretty darn good hints planted around Sprint's own website.

Mar

CyanogenMod 7 RC2 Rolling Out Now, Packing Android 2.3.3, New Features, Bugfixes

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Development, News

Cyanogen has just announced via the CM blog that CyanogenMod 7 Release Candidate 2 is rolling out now for supported devices. The team has managed to work in the changes found in Android 2.3.3, and this is the first RC to pack WiMAX for the EVO (previously it was only found in nightlies). CM7 has been feature-frozen with RC2 as well, meaning the team will focus on fixing bugs from this point on.

CHANGELOG

7.0.0

Common: Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) - Google

Common: Fixes and changes from AOSP master - Various

Common: ClockworkMod Recovery 3.0: Koush, Cyanogen, Zinx

Common: Themes engine - T-Mobile

Common: Performance enhancements for Qualcomm hardware - Code Aurora

Common: New boot animation - 73v1n - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYXiKWwp0DQ

Common: Fix readahead values for NAND/MMC devices

Common: Revamped notification widget - cvpcs

Common: Updated various graphics for GB style - blunden

Common: DSPManager updated for 2.3 - alankila

Common: Restyled music app and forward-port of features - Jason Asher

Common: Rotary answer in Phone app - James Peterson

Common: BT VoiceDialer fixes - Matthew Sparby

Common: Calendar enhancements - James Peterson

Common: Stagefright fixes for 7x30, 8x50, and 7x27 - Zinx, arcee, Cyanogen

Common: Pacman package manager - Kmobs

Common: Workaround for unknown phone number - Jiri Tyr

Common: Trackball answer/hangup - Juan Rodriguez

Common: CMParts reorganization - Robert Burns

Common: Optional screen on/off animations - Diogo Ferreira

Common: New browser incognito mode - optedoblivion

Common: New trackball/trackpad wake - Zinx, Cyanogen

Common: Legacy sensor/GPS support - arcee

Common: Enabled v8 javascript engine on armv6 (msm7227/msm7225) - arcee

Common: Customizable overscroll - arcee

Common: Torch cleanup - defer

Common: 2D compositor backwards compatibility - arcee

Common: OpenGL backwards compatibility - Zinx, Cyanogen, Sileht, ezterry

Common: SMS templates using gestures - Riccardo Ciovati

Common: Phone Goggles - David Bidorff

Common: Option to always show battery percentage on lockscreen - Robert Burns

Common: CPU frequency/scaling control in CMParts - Robert Ramiega

Common: Option to pause/play music with camera button - cvpcs

Common: Allow SIP User-Agent configuration - arcee

Common (non-HTC): Fixed mobile connection suspension - arcee

Common: New music widgets - Jason Asher

Common: Updated FLAC support - cvpcs, Cyanogen, kroot

Common: Updated wallpapers - Fitsnugly, Prash

Common: Customizable search/long-press search - Sven Dawitz

Common: New lockscreen styles - Rotary Revamped (default) and Lense - Sven Dawitz, Stefano Pignataro

Common: Customizable app launcher on rotary lockscreen - Sven Dawitz

Common: Now playing and album art on lockscreen - kmobs

Common: GPS fixes - CodeAurora, arcee

Common: Breakfast/Brunch - arcee

Common: Statusbar battery percentage with mini icon - Sven Dawitz, design by Jazz Kalsi

Common: SMS split for braindead carriers - Mike Wielgosz

Common: CMParts cleanup - Sven Dawitz

Common: Notification profiles - Martin Long

Espresso/Legend: Enabled native WiFi tethering - Cyanogen, OMAPZoom.org

Z71: Enabled MPEG4/AAC video recording - arcee

Z71: Enabled native WiFi tethering - arcee

Passion/Bravo/BravoC/Supersonic/Inc: Kernel 2.6.37 - Google, Cyanogen, defer, Kali-, toastcfh, slayher

Vision/Glacier/Espresso: WiFi calling compatibility and optimization - Zinx

Vision/Glacier/Ace: Unified kernel - HTC, Cyanogen, Zinx, Kali-, defer

Vision/Glacier/Ace: Fix FM radio on 2.3 - Zinx

Vision: Only install WiFi calling on TMUS devices - attn1

Espresso/Legend/Liberty: Unified kernel - HTC, Cyanogen, attn1, jznomoney, Alex Hofbauer

Supersonic: WiMAX support - HTC, Shinzul, toastcfh, shift, #teamwin, Cyanogen

ONE: Enabled native WiFi tethering - arcee