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Nov

Virgin Mobile USA's Cyber Monday Deal: $75 Off Samsung Intercept ($174.99, No Contract)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Deals, Intercept, News, Samsung, Virgin Mobile

The Black Friday is long gone, but another, potentially even bigger event, called Cyber Monday, is now upon us. Cyber Monday is what happens when the Black Friday goes online, and Virgin Mobile USA does not disappoint. The carrier, which uses Sprint's network, is offering its only Android handset, the Samsung Intercept, for a whopping $75 off. The deal is valid for the duration of Cyber Monday, so hurry up if you want this 800MHz Android QWERTY slider for $175, with free shipping. The beauty of Virgin Mobile USA, of course, is its plans starting at $25 a month, with NO contract to sign.

Nov

Quick Tip: How To Jump To Top In TweetDeck For Android

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Tips & Tutorials

Having found the jump to top function in TweetDeck for Android yesterday, which I didn't know existed for who knows how long, I got excited and shared the tip via Twitter. You see, what we take for granted in other clients, such as Twidroyd, where this feature is accessed via a button in the Menu, is not so obvious in TweetDeck. To my surprise, so many of you responded, thanking for uncovering this obscure feature in your favorite Twitter client, that I decided (since not everyone is on Twitter nowadays [:gasp:]) to put the tip up for everyone to see. No longer will you have to scroll up for miles after a day's worth of messages.

Nov

Sprint 4G Launches In Los Angeles, CA; Washington, D.C.; Miami, FL; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, OH

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Sprint

As the Thanksgiving weekend is coming to an end, residents of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Miami, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus can say thank you to Sprint today as well. The nation's 3rd largest mobile carrier announced that 4G, otherwise known as WiMax, is officially live in the aforementioned cities. This puts the Los Angeles area full 2 days ahead of schedule, as the 4G launch there was expected on December 1st. SF Bay Area next, please (the launch there is expected sometime in December)!

Go ahead, fire up your EVOs and Epics, and give the network a good test using the official Speedtest.net app (download below) - after all, your speeds should have increased about 10 times compared to 3G.

Nov

Android Game Roundup: Five Of Our (Non-Angry Birds) Favorites

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

We've already brought you the top five 3D games for Android as well as several reviews of our favorite games, but developers have made the Marketplace such a great place to squander your time and money on the latest in the world of entertainment that we just have to keep coming back to this topic. Besides, since the majority of you are probably still on the lookout for a good Android game other than Angry Birds, I decided to put together another list of games, this time of the best ones overall. Dig in!

#1 - EVAC

After watching Artem's glowing review of EVAC, I immediately set of to download the PacMan clone from the Market.

Nov

Cyber Monday Sale: Android Police T-Shirts Are 25% Off, Now Through November 30th

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Deals, Off-Topic

If you still haven't picked up one of the awesome Android shirts that we added to our apparel store this month, here is your chance at ordering them with the largest discount to date: 25% off orders over $40. Just use coupon codes CYBER2010 (US) or CADCYBER2010 (Canada), and the discount will be applied to the total value of your cart. Customers outside the US and Canada, unfortunately, are not eligible.

Here are some designs you can find in the shop:

TareX - Design #2, the winner of the design contest:

^{Left: back, right: front}

JoeyK - Design #1

^{Left: back, right: front}

Romarto - Design #2

^Front

Romarto - Design #3

And the list goes on.

Nov

[Updated] Android 2.3 And 3.0 Discovered On Nexus One In Adobe AIR Performance Tests

Posted by Stephen Tenerowicz in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Note: As Frandroid has shown us via the comments below, the OS version and build are easy to fake, and the Honeycomb results were indeed faked by them. Whether the Gingerbread ones are also fake or not is not confirmed, but all signs point to that.

We just spotted Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) and 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) on Adobe's AIR Benchmark site, which was designed to test Adobe AIR performance on mobile devices. Interestingly, both new Android OS builds were running on a Nexus One, with no Nexus S or GT-i9020 (the handset rumored to be the Nexus S) in sight.

Nov

How To: Install The Android Market In The Android Emulator

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, News, Tips & Tutorials

Ever since I started developing Android apps, I've been baffled by the absence of the actual Android Market in the Android SDK. None of the virtual devices created for the emulator have the Market anywhere in the vicinity. Maybe Google is trying to reserve it for actual devices, so that you don't go rating or trying out apps on something that isn't even a real phone, but it makes it quite inconvenient for us developers because we can't easily install our favorite apps, such as the Astro file manager or DiskUsage. With necessary limitations in place (like disabling the rating functionality), Google should have included the Market app as part of the SDK to make the emulator experience closer to real life.

Nov

New Version Of MIUI ROM Now Rolling Out Over The Air, Bringing Built-In Theming, Better Folders, CPU Management, And Major Speed Increase With It

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Development, Froyo 2.2, Google, HTC, Milestone, Motorola, News, Nexus One (Passion)

The MIUI ROM is definitely one of those things you'll either love or hate, but judging by the waves the arrival of the latest version of the mod has been causing, the community (or at least most of it) is of the former opinion. And rightly so, if you ask me - the ROM is now even faster, features user-creatable (and downloadable) themes, and pinch-to-zoom on homescreens, among many other additions. While it still has a detectable iPhone aroma about it, it's arguably worth it, if for no other reason than the fact that its system animations zip along at 60 FPS, which is more than three times higher than those of a stock Nexus One.

Nov

Rovio Confirms Angry Birds Christmas Edition, Episode 5, New Birds, All Coming Soon

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, Games, News

It may only be Thanksgiving, which consequently means that December 25 (Christmas) is still a month away, but it looks like Rovio Mobile, the company behind the insanely popular Angry Birds, is already stocking up on Christmas gifts. Yes, a Christmas edition of Angry Birds no longer exists exclusively in your dreams - @RovioMobile, the company's Twitter account, recently replied to this tweet from @SkeenaNC:

with this message:

What "new things," you ask? Finnish website mtv3.fi yesterday acquired the following screenshot from what is presumably the Christmas version of Angry Birds:

That screenie does look a little squished, which could cause suspicion, but the company's Twitter account once again gave it all away:

The fact that the first annual Angry Birds fan meetup is going down on December 11th has caused some to mark that as the date for the game's release, but according to mtv3.fi, it will be here before November is out.

Nov

HTC Desire Z Review Roundup: The Best Of Both Worlds In One Not-So-Light Package

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire Z (Vision), HTC, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Vodafone

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

After the positive impact HTC's T-Mobile G2 made on American reviewers, it's no wonder the company has decided to try to impress their European colleagues with a similar phone, the Desire Z. The phone is available now from Vodafone, 3 Mobile, Virgin Mobile, O2, Talk Mobile, Orange, and Tesco Mobile if you want to take the leap; the question is, should you? Read on to see what four expert reviewers from TechRadar, CNET UK, Pocket-Lint, and PhoneArena had to say on the subject.

TechRadar

TechRadar's review, detailed as always, covered just about everything Desire Z-related, from its camera to its sturdy and sexy aluminum construction to HTC's new Sense UI in a span of only seven pages.