07
Oct
androot

Universal Androot Hits The Market, Now Supports One-Click Rooting Of 23 Android Phones

Posted by in Development, Droid (Sholes), G1 (Dream), Hero, Hero (Sprint, HeroC), Milestone, Milestone XT720, myTouch Slide (Espresso), News, Nexus One (Passion), Streak, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)
Last Updated: October 16th, 2010

Update: As Artation has pointed out in the comments below, Universal Androot has since been removed from the Market for unknown reasons. If you're still heartbent on using it though, you can download it it from here.

If you can think back to the time Universal Androot was released, you'll recall the then small xda-developers startup that allowed for one-click rooting of a very limited number of phones, all of which had to be running Android 2.1 Eclair or lower.

Now, the app has hit the Market and is ready for prime time with support for a multitude phones, including devices running Android 2.2 FroYo (though, only limited to Nexus One before 2.2.1 and an older FRG01B Droid build), 2.1 Eclair, 1.6 Donut, and even phones stuck on 1.5 Cupcake, like the HTC Magic.

27
Jul
T-Mobile-G1

T-Mobile G1 Rides Off Into The Sunset

Posted by in G1 (Dream), News

The world’s first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 (based on the HTC Dream platform), has officially been discontinued today. It is no longer available via T-Mobile’s website.

More than anything, this marks the beginning of the end for the first-generation flagship Android devices, as phones running Android 1.5 and 1.6 are slowly phased out of the Android ecosystem—reducing version fragmentation, and allowing developers and users alike to move away from obsolete software.

Of course, some homage is owed; the G1 originated the ever-expanding family of Android smartphones we have today . The G1 helped Android move from its status as an obscure, Google-acquired experiment, to that of a first-class mobile operating system.

16
Jun
x8

Sony Ericsson Announces 3” Xperia X8 With Android 1.6, Coming In Q3 2010

Posted by in Devices By Manufacturer, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia X8 (Shakira)

Today, Sony Ericsson officially announced the Xperia X8, formerly known as ‘Shakira’, which will offer a middle ground between the Xperia X10 and X10 Mini.

Running Android 1.6, the software used on the X8 makes the most of the limited screen estate on offer. Utilizing Sony Ericsson’s signature application used in the other Xperia devices, the X8 allows the user to stay connected with social networks using the Timescape application.

If you aren’t already familiar with Timescape, all information about one contact is kept in the same place, so the user can easily access their contact’s Facebook posts and Tweets, or simply find an email address or phone number.

21
Apr
Garminfone

Garmin-Asus Announce Garminfone, Exclusive To T-Mobile USA

Posted by in Devices By Manufacturer, Garmin, Garminfone, News

Garmin-Asus have announced their first Android powered smartphone with the Garmin navigation experience fully integrated. Called the Garminfone (original, I know), it comes with a 3MP camera on board, a MicroSD slot supporting up to 32GB of storage and of course a custom version of Android.

Although the key selling point of the Garminfone is the turn by turn navigation, it offers a compelling set of features for any smartphone lover. The turn by turn navigation promises to use multiple positioning technologies to find your location no matter where you are, and you can use Garmin’s voice studio to record custom voice directions for the navigation.

14
Apr
image

Google Updates Fragmentation Statistics - 70% Still Stuck With Android 1.5 And 1.6, 23% Secretly Cry About It Every Night

Posted by in News

Today the official Android fragmentation chart was finally updated by Google to show the most up-to-date breakdown of various versions of Android out in the wild. The data was collected from devices which accessed the Android Market between March 29th and April 12th.

Fragmentation of Android is my main concern for the future of the platform. With Google’s rapid release schedule, phone manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the latest versions and some new, low budget phones are being released with Android 1.5 or 1.6 instead of 2.1. Hopefully, this will be corrected in the next version of Android.

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