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Feb

Motorola Readies A More Secure Android Platform For The Corporate World

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Motorola, News

Motorola Mobility has revealed to InfoWorld that it is working with the newly acquired start-up 3LM (Three Laws Mobility) to fill the security gaps in the Android platform and create a more secure smartphone OS.

The BlackBerry has been the traditional smartphone of choice for executives, with the iPhone making slow inroads. However, the Android platform has never found love in the corporate world due mainly to its open and insecure nature, perceived or otherwise. There has not really been any effective application or tool that allows the device to be fully secured.

According to InfoWorld, 3LM will create APIs for the Android platform that will "add missing security and management capabilities at the OS level, so that the entire device can be managed via policies by mobile device management tools".

Feb

After Numerous Delays, The HTC Thunderbolt May Finally Launch This Week

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, Rumors, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

Electronista picked up on a (now deleted) tweet from the infamous Verizon-affiliated tipster black_man_x that "Thunderbolts are go!!!!", suggesting that the launch of the HTC Thunderbolt is imminent.

This is just a short while after GizmoFusion reported that it had received word of Verizon planning on releasing the device "as early as next week" (which is now "this week").

It is still a little unclear when Verizon's first LTE phone will launch, however the most recent rumours suggest the in-store date to be March 10. Although it could also be the 3rd or 4th.

This is a sigh of relief for Verizon and HTC after rumours surfaced that the LTE device would be further delayed due to horrid battery performance of two to three hours on a single charge.

Feb

BlueputDroid Turns Your Android Phone Into A Mouse/Keyboard For Your PS3

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

If you have a Playstation 3 and have ever surfed the web or chatted with a gaming buddy, you may already be familiar with one of the most annoying text entry systems known to mankind. Pushing a directional pad (or joystick) to select letters may have been fun when entering the Super Macho Man code in Mike Tyson's Punchout, but this isn't 1987, and you expect an easier method of typing. Of course, Sony (and third party vendors) will be happy to sell you a pricey keyboard peripheral, but do you really want to buy yet another accessory for your gaming console?

Feb

The Media Worships The iPad - But For How Much Longer?

Posted by Will Shanklin in Editorials, NOOKcolor (Encore), XOOM

You've seen it: a new Android tablet is featured on some mainstream media's program or website, and you know it's coming, but you still can't help but clench your sphincter muscles just a little when you hear it...

Will it be an iPad killer?

Samsung's attempt to compete with the iPad...

The latest inferior and insignificant non-Apple offering that we're forced to cover...

Can't they see that this is like describing Colin Firth as a wanna-be Tom Cruise? After a while, you begin to wonder if these journalists have actually used an Android tablet. Do they even know what it is they're missing?

Feb

Motorola XOOM Gets Overclocked By SetCPU To 1.5GHz, Bends Space-Time

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Development, News, Videos, XOOM

You thought 1.2GHz was fast? That was just the beginning. The developer of the extremely popular SetCPU app has managed to get a 50% clock speed increase out of the XOOM's dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2, bumping it up to a screaming 1.5GHz. Now, this is sort of like attaching a very large turbo to your four-cylinder hot hatch - that is, your device life may be shortened a little if you're constantly pushing it to the limits. Oh, and it might burn a hole in your pants. But 1.5GHz is an impressive figure regardless, and shows just how powerful the Tegra 2 driving the XOOM really is.

Feb

[Weekend (Non-)Poll] What Are Your Three Favorite Apps?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Can The Amazon Appstore Succeed Against The Android Market?

I'm taking a deceptive turn with this weekend's poll, and... well, not polling. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. Rather than have the usual pick-an-option-and-hit-vote poll, I'm doing a vocal poll via the comments.

Here's the deal: We'd like to know what your three favorite non-Google apps are. If it's relevant, be sure to include details (as needed) such as your device, whether you're rooted, or why the app is your favorite. What you don't need to do is include market links, QR codes, and the like.

Feb

That Was Quick: The Motorola Atrix 4G Now Has Its First Custom ROM

Posted by Will Shanklin in Atrix 4G (Olympus), Development, News

If you're among the early adopters of Motorola's Atrix 4G, you can now install a custom ROM that may give you more flexibility with your snazzy new phone. Developer Design Gears' Adeo ROM is now available for download. While this may not be a ROM that will show any immediately mind-blowing changes to the typical end user, it gives you a reboot option, and more importantly, it's deodexed, which is an important first step that will allow developers and advanced users greater power to modify and replace apps APK files.

While one can install the ROM whether rooted or not, this brings some tricky caveats along with it:

you cannot do a factory reset, or you could end up bricking your prized Atrix
you cannot ever pull the battery, or risk suffering the wrath of the Atrix gods (or something like that)

A tutorial/review of the ROM has hit YouTube, courtesy of MobileTechVideos:

As you can probably tell, the direct usefulness of this one is really going to depend on your level of experience and whether you're a developer or not.

Feb

Quick How To & Hands-On: Get The Stunning Honeycomb Boot Animation On Your Rooted Android Device

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Last night, I spotted a tweet from simms22 linking to a video of the Honeycomb boot animation on a CM7ed Nexus S. This morning I awoke to a tweet from him with a link to download it. Update: about an hour ago, simms notified me that the original animation is the work of XDA member zul8er, and tnpapadakos then released an updated (fixed) version.

^{I think this is the first time I've ever seen his pretend pervertedness actually pan out.}

And indeed, sexy it is. For those who missed the boot animation the first go-round, we were impressed the when we saw it earlier this month on the XOOM, and it looks just as good scaled down.

Feb

Public Beta Of FullHDMI Released, Lets You Mirror Your EVO's Screen On Your HDTV

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Sprint

Fellow EVO 4G owners, were you envious when Sony Ericsson demoed the Xperia arc's full HDMI capabilities? Fear not - once again, the developer community has come to the rescue!

Android Central Forums user Orrebmas has developed a "limited time" public beta of FullHDMI, an app that lets you output any content on your EVO's display to your HDTV. Yep, that means you can finally get your Angry Birds on in full, 50-inch mode.

Unfortunately, there are a few caveats. First, simply installing an APK file isn't enough; to get FullHDMI up and running, you'll also need to flash a custom kernel.

Feb

Thumb Keyboard Is An Epic Win For Tablet Typing [Hands-On]

Posted by Will Shanklin in App Reviews, Applications, Galaxy Tab, NOOKcolor (Encore), Reviews, Tips & Tutorials, XOOM

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you caught our review of Thumb Keyboard last month, you'll know the gist of this clever keyboard app that aims to make two-thumbed typing a breeze. It's a novel (and potentially very useful) tool for a phone, but with recent updates that have accentuated the tablet layouts, this has now become my keyboard of choice on large tablet screens, and is a potential game-changer in the new slate arena.

On phones, trace keyboards like Swype and SlideIt are extremely hard to beat in the speed department (world texting records seem to be broken on a regular basis with Swype), but on the wider tablet screen, tracing suddenly becomes much less convenient.