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Nov

AT&T Motorola Bravo And Flipside Now Available For $130/$100 From AT&T, $0 From Amazon And Wirefly

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, Bravo, Flipside, Motorola, News

No matter what you say about AT&T (i.e. how long can they keep locking down sideloading no their Android phones?), at least their commitment to Android has definitely picked up compared to only a few months ago.

Today, as expected, 2 more new Android phones are available on AT&T, namely Motorola Backflip and Motorola Flipout.

Motorola Bravo

The Bravo is a slightly more upscale of the two, but still fails to impress me in any way other than being DLNA-enabled. To refresh your memory, here are the Bravo specs:

TI OMAP 3610 800 MHz processor
No physical keyboard
512 MB RAM, 2 GB ROM, 2GB microSD preinstalled
3.7", 854 x 480 FWVGA screen
802.11 b/g/n WiFi
MOTOBLUR
3MP camera with auto-focus (ugh)
DLNA-enabled
1540 mAh battery
Android 2.1

The Bravo is available from AT&T for $129.99, but also showed up on Amazon for $0.01 and Wirefly for free.

Nov

Pro Android 3, The First Book To Cover Gingerbread APIs, Goes Up For Presale, Offers Gingerbread Hints

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News

If you want to find out all the new goodies Android's newest upcoming OS, codenamed Gingerbread, is going to bring, you may want to ask Satya Komatineni, Sayed Hashimi, and Dave MacLean. These 3 writers are the co-authors of the Pro Android book series, and, thanks to a tip from @brodduncan, we now know they've definitely been playing with Gingerbread, likely for quite a while.

The new 3rd edition of Pro Android, which recently showed up on Amazon, mentions the Gingerbread SDK in its description:

Pro Android 3 shows you how to build real-world and fun mobile applications using the new Android SDK, codename "Gingerbread."

Learn what’s new with Gingerbread: improved UI across all Android platforms, integration with WebM, the latest Flash integration techniques, and more

The above confirms our earlier suspicions of user interface improvements that Gingerbread is bound to bring as well as reaffirms the WebM integration that Google promised at Google I/O this year.

Nov

[ROM] Team Whiskey Releases Obsidian, Their First Froyo ROM For The T-Mobile Vibrant

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Development, News, T-Mobile, Vibrant

If you're a Vibrant owner interested in custom ROMs, then today is your lucky day. With their Éclair ROM amassing a 400-page thread in under a month, it's safe to say that Team Whiskey's new Obsidian release is going to draw the crowds. Posted on XDA-Developers just moments ago, let's take a look at just what this ROM has to offer:

Obsidian is the first release of Android 2.2, Froyo, from Team Whiskey. Obsidian is a build that follows closely to its sibling releases. A fast, efficient, dark themed power house that's sure to please the daily driver and power user alike.

Nov

Verizon LTE Expert Confirms Existence Of HTC Incredible HD, Hints At LTE Support

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

A Verizon-bound LTE equivalent of the HTC EVO? Nope, that's no longer just a blissful dream for Big Red users, as @black_man_x, a Verizon employee working in the LTE division, yesterday tweeted out the following message:

To add on to that, he went on to tell Droid Life that the pictures of the Incredible HD that BGR obtained a few months ago are legit, although the device has since been "refined a bit." We've already seen one great EVO look-a-like, so let's hope this aluminum-clad beast is another.

Source: @black_man_x (Twitter) via Droid Life

Nov

Verizon Promo Offers A New 450 Minute Plan With Unlimited Text And Data For $69.99, 1400 Minute Family Plan For $139.99

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Verizon Wireless

Over the years, Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, has been notoriously expensive plan-wise, especially compared to Sprint or T-Mobile. For example, you can currently get a 450 minute talk+text plan with unlimited data for $90 over at Verizon, while at Sprint, it will cost you $69.99 (+ the minutes can be used to call any carrier's mobile phone):

^{Left: Verizon, right: Sprint}

A new plan, or 2 plans to be exact, is being offered in a promotion, BGR found today, that are putting the current pricing to shame. Similar to Sprint, Verizon's new offer, sent to customers via email, now offers 450 minutes together with unlimited texting and data for $69.99, which is $20 cheaper than what we saw above.

Nov

Sprint's LG Optimus S Already Rooted

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, LG, Optimus S, Sprint

Last Updated: October 3rd, 2011

As with most other Android phones, the LG Optimus S didn't remain a rooting virgin for long - in fact, it was only a matter of how long it took Android Central forums member KSmithInNY to get the device out of the box.

Before getting started, you'll need to download the Sun JRE (or should I call it Oracle now?), the Android SDK, and drivers for the Optimus S (model LGP500, here's a detailed guide on installing those). Once you've got those, here's how to go about it:

Step 1: Plug your phone into your PC with the USB cable.

Nov

Rumored Nexus 2/S Rumored To Be Delayed By A Rumored Hardware Problem

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Samsung

The most widely rumored upcoming Android device without any physical evidence of its existence is, without a doubt, the Samsung Nexus 2 (which also goes by the name Nexus S) - even its picture presented above is fake.

Ever since the first time it was mentioned by Androidandme and shortly backed up by RadioAndroid, the whole Androidosphere has been abuzz with the next Google managed device for one simple reason: the Nexus One was and still remains the most open Android device on the market. Considering Google killed the crowd favorite earlier this year, any mention of a potential successor was capable of arousing geekdroids across the world even more than Gingerbread itself.

Nov

Opera Mobile For Android Coming November 9th

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, News

Opera Mobile for Android (not to be confused with its Mini brethren) has certainly been long in the making, but according to a recent tweet by @opvard, one of Opera's employees, it's finally around the corner. The tweet didn't reveal much, but it did inform us that the mobile browser is on track for a November 9th release, adding a definitive date to the awesome Next page that we saw yesterday. It may not be as exciting as Samsung's upcoming announcement on Monday, but still, it's about time Andy sees a real version of the wonder that is Opera.

Nov

How To: Replace The Lockscreen Clock Font

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Tips & Tutorials

This has not been tested on devices with custom manufacturer UI's, such as HTC Sense. I can't actually check (as I don't have Sense anymore), but I would guess that it won't work as the lockscreen is completely different when using a manufacturer UI.

This morning on Reddit, I spotted an awesome post titled "I got rid of that stupid lockscreen clock font...," showing nothing more than a screenshot. When asked for details, the Reddit community responded in typical supportive fashion, explaining which file needs to be replaced. It turns out it's quite a simple thing to do for rooted users, requiring only that you copy a font from your PC to your SD card, then replace one file.

Nov

MIUI Browser ("Charming Browser") Released In English, Keeps The Party Going

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

Looks like the team at MIUI hasn't been resting on its laurels after releasing its insanely popular MIUI ROM - they've recently released Charming Browser for Android. Just like the ROM, the browser was initially released in Chinese. Luckily, XDA-Developers member jpsiemer immediately jumped on it and translated it to English.

Early reports indicate that aside from a few minor niggles - namely, a slightly longer initial load time - the browser performs as well as it looks. In fact, the thread is full of overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Ready to pull the trigger? Hit up the download link and let us know how it works out for you!