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Jan

Verizon Now Selling Samsung Galaxy Tab For $499.99, Issuing $100 Refunds To Those Who Bought It Within The Last 14 Days

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Deals, Galaxy Tab, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

Costco's been selling Verizon's version of the Galaxy Tab for $499.99 for a while now, but that doesn't make Big Red's latest deal any less exciting. As of today, customers can walk into any Verizon store and pick up a Tab for the aforementioned price of $499.99; only there's another bonus here: the package includes $60 of free movie rentals from Blockbuster or Samsung's own Media Hub. Additionally, if you bought a Galaxy Tab within the last 14 days, the carrier will offer you a $100 refund.

What's your take on the matter - is this proof of Verizon's generosity, a result of underwhelming sales figures, or simply a sign of things to come?

Jan

Man Uses Geek Wizardry, Magic To Use HTC EVO 4G As Garage Door Opener

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Off-Topic

In an impressive display of nerdery, XDA member JsChiSurf (who you may remember as the guy behind the re-mapped EVO buttons and a shout-out in Fresh 3.5) has used a host of tools and tricks to create an app that allows him to use his EVO as a garage door opener. Check out the video below (it's on the longer side at nearly 4 minutes, but it's got all the details).

In short, he connects an old Linux server (which was already running in his garage) to a serial relay controller, which is in turn connected to his garage door, to do the trick.

Jan

Solar Wind: An Amazing, Trippy Live Wallpaper

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Many Android owners seem to have a love/hate relationship with live wallpapers - no matter how stunning they are, they generally zap performance and battery life too much to be used for long. Here's one that might work on both sides of the coin: meet Solar Wind LWP.

As you can see, it's... well, it's a bit hard to describe. It mainly consists of multi-colored strings of dots swirling around. A video can do it better justice:

^{Video courtesy of YouTuber bmmahfood.}

The app seems to be wildly popular: it's been on the Market for 19 days, and broke 250,000 downloads after just 12.

Dec

Unrevoked Updated To v3.3, With Support For The Newest EVO 4Gs And Incredibles With SLCD Screens

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Incredible, News

The group behind Unrevoked, a tool that roots and unlocks a variety of supported Android devices, just released a nice New Year's present for EVO 4G and Incredible owners. Version 3.3 of Unrevoked adds support for:

Droid Incredible with SLCD screens
EVO 4Gs updated to OTA 3.70.651.1
the newest EVO 4G models with HBOOT 2.02 and 2.10

Besides compatibility updates, the new Unrevoked now uses another exploit under the hood, which is supposed to be more reliable than the previously used (and now infamous) rageagainstthecage.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

As a reminder, Unrevoked allows you to accomplish the following:

One-click root without reinstalling/reflashing/wiping your existing stock Android OS.

Dec

All Hexage Games 50% Off Until Monday

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

There's no question Hexage's Android games are state-of-the-art - in fact, EVAC was #1 on our list of non-Angry Birds games - but there are those of you reluctant to spend your hard-earned cash on a game for your phone.

In an effort to alleviate that stress, the game development firm has cut the prices of each and every one of its games in half until Monday, January 3rd. As a reminder, Hexage is the company behind the following games.

EVAC, EVAC Lite, and EVAC HD

Everlands, Everlands Lite, and Everlands HD

Totemo, Totemo Lite, and Totemo HD

Buka, Buka Lite, and Buka HD

Radiant, Radiant Lite, and Radiant HD

It's worth noting that the discounted prices have yet to appear on AppBrain, so if you want to take advantage of them, you'll have to find the apps in the Market on your phone.

Dec

PSA: There Are Some Trojans In Some Apps... Somewhere. Remain Vigilant, Friends.

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, Games, News

I've been avoiding this one for a few days because it doesn't really seem like much of an issue to me, but it hasn't gone away, so I've changed my tune. Maybe this post will help somebody from getting a Trojan - and that has to count for some brownie points or something, right?

For the past few days, security-app maker Lookout (who you may remember for their App Genome Project) has been warning folks about a new AndVirus (yeah, just made that up) they've found called Geinimi. Word on the street is that this bad boy steals user data, and shows signs of "botnet-like capabilities." Scary stuff, indeed.

Dec

CNN Money: Could Google Become A Carrier?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Carriers, Editorials, News, Off-Topic

Yesterday, CNN Money posted a rather interesting piece that posed the question: could Google become "your new phone carrier?" If you're anything like me (and I hope for your sake that you're not), your first response was "Google? A carrier? #$%^ Yeah!" But as awesome as I'm sure that would be, the more I think about it, the less likely it seems.

I'm not saying it won't happen. Hell, even the author of the article (David Goldman) doesn't seem sure of the idea. The point of the article seems to be more so to point out that it's feasible, especially down the road.

Dec

[Review] Super Drill Panic Takes You Back To 1992; Also, The Center Of The Earth

Posted by Brad Ganley in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews, Videos

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

A new round of games that incorporate one of my favorite Android services, OpenFeint, has recently been released. We've gotten our all-too-idle hands on several of these games and, let me tell you, some impressive things are being brought to the table. While flipping through the games and wasting all of my time, one game stuck out to me. Maybe it was the nostalgic feel of it. Maybe it was the Indiana Jones throwback feeling of it. Maybe it was because I really like being able to flaunt my high score to the world. Whatever the reason, I'm a big fan of this game; so much so, in fact, that I made a video of me playing and talking about it.

Dec

Revision 2 Of The Archos 7 Home Tablet Official, Not Much Better Than The Original

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in 7, ARCHOS, News

Nope, the Archos 70 wasn't the death of the good (or not so good) ol' Archos 7 Home Tablet, apparently. The manufacturer has just let revision 2 of the Archos 7 loose, and while it's still got a resistive touchscreen (ugh), its CPU has been upgraded to an 800 MHz Rockchip processor (the older model was powered by a 600 MHz chip), and it now comes with Android 2.1 (as opposed to Android 1.6 on the original).

Expansys will sell you the device for $194.99, though it's currently out of stock and is said to be shipping within 5-10 days.

Dec

[Rumor] LG To Unveil 8.9-Inch Honeycomb Tablet At CES

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, LG, News, Optimus 2X (Star, p990), Tablets

Looks like Motorola won't be the only one showing off a Honeycomb tablet at CES 2011 - according to the Korea Times, LG plans to bring an 8.9-inch Android (2.4?) device to the infamous electronics show.

While the words "LG," "Honeycomb," and "tablet" are probably enough to excite many Android fans, the Korea Times was also able to confirm that LG will have another awe-inspiring device on display at CES: the much-anticipated Optimus 2X, better known as the world's first dual-core phone.

What say you - are you ready for LG to (finally) make its appearance on the high-end Android scene?