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Oct

Motorola Droid X FroYo Source Code Released, Developers Go Wild

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, Motorola, Verizon Wireless

This isn't the first time the Droid X has had its source code revealed to the world, but it's a first for the frozen yogurt kind (MotoBlur-ridden as it may be). That's right - despite some acknowledged issues with the update, Motorola has decided the pressure of the GPLv2 license was too much to bear and handed over the source code for the Droid X's FroYo update. Hackers, developers, and anyone else interested, tinker away!

Note: If you have any confusion regarding Android's dual Apache/GPL licensing, head over to this excellent ArsTechnica article that explains it in great detail.

Source: Motorola via Droid Life

Oct

T-Mobile TV Ripped Out Of myTouch ROM, Now Available For Download [UPDATED]

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, HTC, myTouch 4G (Glacier), News, T-Mobile

Looks like the new video-enabled Yahoo app wasn't the only thing ripped out of the leaked ROM for the new T-Mobile myTouch - the T-Mobile TV app, which is no unfamiliar sight, has just been pulled out of the ROM as well.

As we can see in the screenshot above, the interface is quite slick, with a nice black bar along the bottom to select content providers (FOX News, MSNBC, ABC News, CNBC, ESPN, and NBC Sports from what's visible). Androinica claims that the service is powered by MobiTV, much like Sprint TV as well as AT&T's and Verizon's offerings, which is fine with me...

Oct

Gauntlet, Thrown: Costco Drops Price Of T-Mobile G2 To $50 With New Contract, No Activation Fee

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in G2 (Vision), News, T-Mobile

It's certainly a good time to be in the market for a new flagship Android device, isn't it? Amazon is selling the Motorola Droid 2 for just $.01, and the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G for a cool $100. Lately, Amazon and Costco have been in a price war over the T-Mobile G2; Costco struck first, dropping the upgrade price to just $100 - to which Amazon replied by dropping the new contract price to $80. Now Costco has shot back by lowering their own new contract price to just $50 without any rebate.

Unfortunately, the upgrade and add-a-line prices are still $100 after $50 MIR.

Oct

Updated, More Polished, Standalone YouTube App Hits The Android Market, And It Is Awesome

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Google is on a serious roll lately - after releasing standalone Gmail, Maps, Navigation, Street View, and Car Home apps, today the company continued to decouple its applications from the core of the Android OS with the release of the standalone YouTube app.

Not only is the app now updateable using the Market, which means we'll get updates faster and without requiring OTAs, but it also comes with a shiny new UI, ability to vote, view and leave comments, and play videos in portrait mode. Check out the screenshots I took below and hit up the direct Market download link.

Oct

T-Mobile G2 Overclocked To 1.42GHz, "Basically Blows Every Retail Android Phone Out Of The Water" - Here's How To Do It

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, G2 (Vision), HTC, T-Mobile

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

The G2 may have a next-gen MSM7X30 processor, but unfortunately, HTC and T-Mobile have decided to clock it at a paltry 800MHz.

Oct

EA Acquires Chillingo For $20 Million - Chillingo To Give A Damn About Android Again?

Posted by Andrew Huff in Apps/Games, Games, News

It was rumored earlier this morning that Chillingo, publishers of the massively popular games Angry Birds by Rovio and Cut The Rope by Zeptolab, would be acquired by a major company. It has been confirmed that a deal has been struck and Chillingo has been acquired by EA for $20 million in cash and possibly more.

While full details of the transaction haven't been released yet, there were probably some other bonuses involved as $20 million is far below Chillingo's estimated worth of $80 to $200 million. Recently they published Cut The Rope which sold over 1 million copies in a single day.

Oct

App Developer Posts His Experiences And Thoughts On Android Market And Apple App Store: Android Market Is Alright, But...

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

Benoit Essiambre, the developer behind iOS and Android apps Speed Bones, Speed Muscles, and Speed Anatomy, recently compared his experience with the Android Market to that of the Apple App Store. Particularly, he discussed ease-of-use, support, and perhaps most importantly, profitability. His thoughts as a developer: the Android Market has a perk or two, but overall it still falls short of the Apple App Store.

His first point: Canada only received paid market support just a few weeks ago. In fact, he created Speed Bones nearly two years ago, before realizing that the Market didn't yet support paid Canadian apps.

Oct

Super-Awesome Interactive Live Wallpaper: 3D Active Blocks

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

Last Updated: October 29th, 2010

Given how popular live wallpaper (LWP) posts are, it's surprising that - with the exception of the Dancing Droid LWP - we haven't really had a big one since we found the R2-D2 set back in early September. Consider the dry spell over: meet the newest post-worthy LWP, 3D Active Blocks. The work of XDA-Devs member mmone3, the premise is simple: it takes pictures (either preset or pictures from your gallery) and breaks them into blocks; the blocks then break up, move, and transform (via various effects) into other pictures.

But the effect is cooler than that: the wallpaper is actually interactive, reacting to touch.

Oct

Bug In Angry Birds Lets You Unlock All Locked Worlds

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News, Off-Topic, Tips & Tutorials

Have you ever wanted to peek ahead to those locked worlds in Angry Birds that are unavailable before fully completing the previous ones? A bug (or an Easter egg) in the Android version of the game lets you do just that, a reddit user braaaiins found. I tried it just a few minutes ago with 100% success.

Of course, many would argue that you should be going in order and playing the way Rovio meant for you to play, and I'd agree with them. However, there will always be people who would also find this unlock useful (lost game progress, new phone, angrybirdyism, etc), so I'll just put this here, and you can quietly walk away.

Oct

myTouch 4G ROM Already Up And Running On Nexus One, AndroidCentral Go Hands-On

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Development, HTC, myTouch 4G (Glacier), News, Nexus One (Passion)

As is traditional following the leak of a new ROM dump, developers have already set to work porting the novel Android flavour to other devices. As he did with the Desire HD ROM, XDA-developers' eVil D: has stepped forward to provide a working port of yesterday's HTC Glacier/myTouch 4G ROM to the Nexus One. Cautioning that he "may or may not support this", eVil D: goes on to describe the semi-functional state that the port is currently in:

What works:
Wifi
Radio
Bluetooth

What doesn't work:
camera/camcorder
videos
Wifi UMA calling = bootloop (you've been warned!)

Requirements:
Common Sense (this is a VERY EARLY build)
SDEXT (512mb) partition *Use clockworkmod or RA 1.9.0+

AndroidCentral got the ROM running on their own Nexus One, and their screenshots provide a good insight into the "Espresso" Sense UI of the myTouch 4G itself.