7″ - 4/5 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

CyanogenMod 7.1 Release Candidate 1 Available Now For Most Supported Devices

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Development, Gingerbread 2.3, Tips & Tutorials

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

Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting
Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About: Part 1 (Apps 1-8),Part 2 (Apps 9-16), Part 3 (Apps 17-25)
Custom ROMs Explained And Why You Want Them
How To Flash A Custom ROM To Your Android Phone With ROM Manager + Full Backup & Restore
So You Want To Know About Bootloaders, Encryption, Signing, And Locking?

The latest version of Android's most popular custom ROM, CyanogenMod, is now available for most of the officially supported Android phones on the CyanogenMod device list.

Jun

Motorola Droid X CyanogenMod Goes Official, Now Served Nightly

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News

This week has definitely been the week of the Droid X - after about a year of being on the market, the magic of the "2nd init" hack allowed for the first ever unofficial build of CyanogenMod 7 on this popular U.S. device. Only days after the momentous announcement, the Droid X CyanogenMod, led by the great cvpcs, is now part of the official CM source tree and served nightly from the CM mirror network.

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

May

BeyondPod, One Of The Best Podcast Managers For Android, On Sale For $1.99 Now Through Monday (Normally $6.99)

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, Deals, News

When it comes to podcasting applications on Android, there are certain ones that stand above the rest. Among those, BeyondPod Podcast Manager may be the top dog, and for this weekend only, you can score this awesome app for just $1.99 as opposed to the usual $6.99.

Note from Artem: I've been a fan of BeyondPod for over a year now and use it for managing, syncing, and listening to my podcasts exclusively. Listen? What Listen?

BeyondPod is packed full of features (so many, I just had to use bullet points. I do love bullet points):

Full Google Reader integration and sync
both audio and video supported, or just use it as an RSS reader
Complete podcast control: how many to download, when to download, and how many to store.

May

[Updated] CyanogenMod 7.0.3 Goes Live - Download It Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

CyanogenMod 7.0.3, an incremental release for CM 7, is now live at cyanogenmod.com. While we're waiting for the official changelog from Cyanogen himself, I can tell you that it does not contain Android 2.3.4 (it's still based off 2.3.3) - that's been saved for CM 7.1 (if you can't wait for 2.3.4, you can update to it by using the nightlies). It does, however, contain important security fixes, among other things. We'll update this post as soon as we get the details.

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

Update #1: Here we go, the changelog is up - not much there, as you can see:

This update contains a bug fix for our update notification system, as well as an important security fix.

Apr

[WTF] Barnes & Noble Responds To Microsoft's Android Lawsuit, Reminds Us Why MS Is The Devil

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Editorials, News, NOOKcolor (Encore)

Last month, Microsoft took bookseller Barnes & Noble, the company responsible for the Nook and Nook Color, to court over some patents infringed because B&N used the Android operating system in the Nook and Nook Color. This is definitely nothing new in the world of mobile devices. It happens all the time, especially with companies like Apple and Microsoft trying to take complete dominance of every arena they enter. That's not the big story here. The big story is the extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY douche-tastic way Microsoft is trying to attack Android with these patents.

One of Android's biggest advantages (besides being vastly superior, of course) is that it costs exactly nothing.

Apr

Updated: [Download] CyanogenMod 7 For The HTC Thunderbolt (Pre-Alpha) Now With Fast Mirror!

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

Yes, you read right - CyanogenMod 7 for the Thunderbolt. We're super excited, too, because we can finally get our Thunderbolt Gingerbread on! But, please be careful, this is a pre-Alpha release (that means the release before the release before the beta), so be careful. Here's what does not work:

-USB Tethering does not work.
-Phone Testing menu does not display correct radio options. If you play with it, you will have to relfash a Stock based rom to 4G back.
-Possible Data/Voice bugs and issues.
-Possible Mic issues on phone calls (try a reboot)

This is basically saying your Thunderbolt might not work very well as a phone.

Apr

Motorola Working On Ruggedized Android Tablet, Presumably For Rugged Individuals

Posted by David Ruddock in Gingerbread 2.3, Motorola, News, Rumors

From today's "probably should have seen it coming" pile, Engadget has come into possession of what looks like a presentation slide for a ruggedized Android tablet being developed by Motorola:

I know, the text is illegible, so here are the main points to take home:

7" capacitive LCD
1GHz dual-core TI OMAP processor
1GB RAM, 8GB NAND onboard storage
Android 2.3 Gingerbread
8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera
Stylus for signature capture
Removable battery good for 5.5 hours of video
Can withstand 4' drop onto plywood (oak, cherry, ash, maple certifications pending)
Works in temperatures of 0-50 degrees Celsius
Tons of enterprise-friendly security
Fingerprint scanner

This device is clearly targeted towards business, and probably specifically towards businesses with employees out in the field, where the tablet's ruggedized nature will protect it from the harsh, plywood-filled world.

Mar

Video: CyanogenMod 7 (Gingerbread) Gets Unofficially Booted On HTC Thunderbolt, Not Yet Usable

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Videos

DANGER: There is a link to download this unofficial, unsupported CM7 ROM in an XDA thread linked at the bottom of this post. Use of that software is 100% at your own risk, and unless you're a developer, there's not much reason to be playing with at this point. There is no data connectivity, no sound, and no Google Apps. Consider yourself warned.

A number of Gingerbread-hungry developers (including some from the CyanogenMod team, particularly Slayher) are hard at work preparing CyanogenMod 7 for its Thunderbolt debut, and progress is steadily being made. In the video above, you can see CyanogenMod 7 successfully booting up on the HTC Thunderbolt (albeit without the signature boot animation) and running through various simple tasks in Android.

Feb

[Updated] CyanogenMod 7 RC1 Now Available For 17 Android Devices

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Warning: This article contains information about flashing custom ROMs to your phone. If you're at all new to this, give our complete guide to custom ROM flashing a read.

Well folks, the day has finally come: the Gingerbread-based CyanogenMod 7 Release Candidates have landed for 17 Android devices. These "RCs" are suitable, generally speaking, for everyday use and have been road-tested enough that TeamDouche feels they're almost ready for prime time. Hit the links for the individual threads, which contain instructions and download mirrors:

Happy flashing, and be sure to read the instructions if this is your first go.

Feb

Half-Baked Port Of Cyanogen Mod 7 Hits Galaxy Tab - Why This Is Hurting Android

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Development, Editorials

There's been exciting news floating around the blogosphere today of a "working" beta of CyanogenMod 7 for the Galaxy Tab being released. Just one caveat - it isn't really CyanogenMod 7.

Before I go onward with this rant, I want to make it crystal clear that I have nothing personally against the developer who ported CyanogenMod 7 to the Galaxy Tab, people like him (or her, of course) are part of the reason I love Android. But they're also part of the reason I have become increasingly frustrated with the custom ROM community's professionalism and ethical standards at large. Let me explain.