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Dec

JetBrains Releases IntelliJ IDEA 10 With Full Android Gingerbread Support In The Free Community Edition

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, Development, News

Android developers take note: Eclipse with the Android Development Tools (ADT) is no longer the only player in town when it comes to developing Android applications. JetBrains, the maker of IntelliJ IDEA, which was open sourced about a year ago, today released version 10 of their IDE, which, among other improvements, includes support for Android in the free Community Edition. All versions of the Android SDK are supported, including the recently released Gingerbread.

As an Android developer myself, I am constantly frustrated with Eclipse, constant IDE crashes, and millions of quirks that ADT seems to have. Therefore, I welcome the competition and will definitely be trying it out.

Dec

Samsung Releases The Greatest Galaxy Tab Promotional Video To Date: Extreme Retreat - Sahara

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Tab, Off-Topic, Samsung, Videos

Samsung is sure throwing some big bucks behind promoting its flagship tablet, the Galaxy Tab. Just like the first video from Andes in the Extreme Retreat series, Extreme Retreat- Sahara manages to be hilarious and informative at the same time, showcasing the Tab's portability, versatility, and functionality. Just watch:

And for those who haven't seen the Andes video, I've embedded it right below:

Source: SAMSUNGmobile

Dec

Android Chrome To Phone App Update Brings Link History

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

The Chrome To Phone Android app, exclusive to Android 2.2 and up, was updated today to version 2.2 with 1 new feature: link history. The app, which lets you quickly and easily send data to your phone from your computer's browser (see our tutorials here: ChromeToPhone, FoxToPhone), now has a single useful screen with links broken down to Today, Last 7 days, Last month, and Older. Here it is:

Unfortunately (or luckily), clipboard history does not show up in this list, so all your passwords and grandma's cookie recipes you might send around are safe.

Grab the updated app in the Market by clicking this link from your mobile or scanning it with Barcode Scanner:

Source: Chrome To Phone

Image credit: DownloadAtoZ

Dec

Froyo Now Rolling Out To All HTC Legend Variants

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Froyo 2.2, HTC, Legend, News

Almost a month ago, lucky HTC Legend owners on Vodaphone UK began receiving their Android 2.2 (Froyo) OTA updates. Surprisingly, carrier independent Legend variants, which would normally get updated first, were instead left behind.

Today, HTC finally let everyone in on the party and announced Froyo availability for all Legends:

To check for updates, turn on your device and go to Settings > About phone > System updates.

Welcome to the club!

Source: @HTC

Dec

Notion Ink Adam Pre-Orders Starting At 10:30AM PST Today At Lower Than Expected Prices; Mystery Feature Still Unrevealed

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Adam, News, Notion Ink

The wait for Notion Ink's dual-core Tegra 2 based Adam tablet pre-orders is finally coming to an end - after yesterday's teaser blog post that now generated over 8000 comments, Rohan Shravan, the CEO and the public voice of Notion Ink, put up some details of the pre-order that is indeed coming today.

Timeline

First up, the timeline:

10:30 a.m PST Dec 9th (0:00 a.m. IST Dec 10th): pre-orders start for a pre-selected group of people who have been actively participating in the Notion Ink Blog
4:30 p.m. PST Dec 9th (6:00 a.m. IST Dec 9th): pre-orders open up for everyone (link TBD)

Pricing

The pricing structure of 3 out of 6 models has been updated as well, and to our surprise, the new prices are actually lower, though temporarily:

LCD Wi-Fi version: $375.33 (down from $399.99)
LCD Wi-Fi+3G version: $425.33 (down from $449.99)
Pixel Qi (transflective display) Wi-Fi version: $499.45
Pixel Qi (transflective display) Wi-Fi+3G version: $549.99

Note: For each 3G model, there are 2 variants - 850 and 900 series, which differ in the exact frequency of the 3G chip.

Dec

LG Apex Review: Because LG "Pretty Good" Didn't Have The Same Ring

Posted by Ian G. Clifton in Apex, LG, Phone Reviews, Reviews, US Cellular

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Introduction

One of Android's greatest strengths is the sheer number of devices it is available on. That gives customers the opportunity to choose a desired carrier and handset with the most important features for a them. It's easy to forget that not everyone is willing to spend $200 on a new phone, and people transitioning from a feature phone to their first smartphone are often less likely to be looking at those high-end handsets. Fortunately, there are a lot of relatively inexpensive Android devices available, although many of them are clunky and frustrating to use. With the LG Apex coming in at just $50 after rebate at US Cellular, it is clearly targeted at people who do not want to spend much, but is it any good?

Dec

[Updated Again: New Pictures] Notion Ink Teases Us With The Golden Ratio A Day Before The Big Adam Unveiling

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Adam, News, Notion Ink

December 9th has been circled on my calendar ever since Notion Ink unveiled its new site and we found a hidden hint pointing at tomorrow's date. That's when the big Adam reveal and pre-orders are undoubtedly happening, as today Notion Ink posted this teaser, with a single image inside, titled "1.61803399." 1.61803399 happens to be the Golden Ratio, which played a huge part in Adam's design:

As for the single occupant of today's blog post, here it is:

Can you smell what the ~~Rock~~ Rohan is cooking?

Update: Joe points out in the comments that the image above contains some metadata that reads: "Oh you've reached here!

Dec

Android Passes 300,000 Activations Per Day, According To Android Chief Andy Rubin

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, News

Andy Rubin is a man of few words, at least on Twitter. Followed by 15,000, he only ever tweeted once before today, defending Android's openness. His second tweet - an update on the daily rate of Android activations, which was 100,000 per day in May during Google I/O, 160,000 in June, 200,000 in August, and now topped 300,000.

300,000 Android phones a day! That's 2.1 million phones per week, about 9 million phones per month, or 108 million phones per year. That's a whole lot of phones.

Shortly after, Dan Morrill, Android's tech lead, echoed Andy with his take:

Just for fun, I entered the data points into a spreadsheet and extrapolated them using a trendline.

Dec

How To: Unleash The Power Of The Viewsonic G Tablet And Turn It Into The Best Performing Tablet On The Market

Posted by Josh Cooter in gTablet (SMB-A1002), Tablets, Tips & Tutorials, Viewsonic

Like so many of you out there, I have been holding out for an Android tablet that would be well worth my saved pennies, one that I could be proud to stack up against the uppity iPad owners that loiter around the local Starbucks. I'll be the first to admit that this year has been disappointing to say the least – cancelled devices, resistive touch screens, underpowered hardware, and carrier only options have plagued the community thus far, and even while optimistic for 2011, it was clear that I needed a tablet now.

Let me save you the trouble of scouring the internet in search of a tablet.

Dec

Upset Android Developers Demand Better Service From Google After Recent Android Market Payment Issues

Posted by Ian G. Clifton in Apps/Games, News

On December 4th, Google user judez reported on the Android Market support forum that for six hours straight, all of his Android Market sales were showing up as "payment declined." The issue continued through December 5th and 6th with over one hundred responses from other developers. Other threads were started reporting the same issue as well. Take a look at the problem:

The screenshot, posted by khriskooper on the second page of that thread, shows just how ridiculous the issue became. Developers were reporting anywhere from 50-90% of payments being declined, with the most significantly affected sellers being outside of the United States with the purchasers in the United States.