07
Dec
nfc

NFC In Gingerbread Is Crippled - It's One-Way-Only, And Not The Way We Want

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, Google, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung
Last Updated: February 9th, 2011

Update 2/9/11: Writing/transmitting via NFC is now possible thanks to the 2.3.3 update.

One thing that was very much anticipated in the Nexus S and Gingerbread in general was NFC (Near Field Communication) support, which is a feature we've never seen before on an Android device. In fact, the vast majority of us took it to mean that it will allow you to use your phone as a credit card, which would indeed be very exciting and insanely cool. Unfortunately, that's not the case here; rather, the technology will allow the Nexus S (and other NFC-capable Android phones) to act as a glorified barcode scanner of sorts.

06
Dec
gingerbread-keyboard

[Updated: With Working Text Prediction] Gingerbread Keyboard Now Available For All Rooted Android 2.2 Devices

Posted by in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Having finally seen the Android 2.3 Gingerbread release happen, I can't tell you how happy I am. All I can say is that this is better than Christmas and New Year's Eve combined!

Amidst all this holiday spirit and joy in the air, one amazing person (Peter Alfonso of Bugless Beast) has already ported the Android 2.3 keyboard to rooted 2.2 devices. Be sure to thank him kindly for the following Android 2.3 keyboard port. I should warn you, however, that at this point the keyboard does not have a proper functioning dictionary, auto-correct is not working, and multi-touch is not active.

06
Dec
keyboard_wm

Walkthrough And Hands-On With The Gingerbread UI And The New Gingerbread Keyboard In All Its Sexiness

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News

As you may have seen, Google took the covers off Gingerbread today and released the new SDK, which allowed me to immediately jump into an emulated Gingerbread instance. After playing with the new UI for a while, I've taken a bunch of screenshots, which you can find below, along with some of my notes.

Before I dive into the Gingerbread screenshots, here is a side-by-side comparison of the same Settings screen in Donut (1.6), Froyo (2.2), and Gingerbread (2.3):

12-6-2010 01-06-01 PM.donut_wm 12-6-2010 01-06-01 PM.froyo_wm 12-6-2010 01-06-01 PM_wm

From left to right: Donut, Froyo, Gingerbread

As you can see, not much has changed since Froyo, except for most of the elements getting darker and/or greener.

06
Dec
image

Android 2.3 User’s Guide – 350+ Pages Of Newly Updated Info

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News
Last Updated: December 9th, 2010

With a new OS comes a new manual, and this one's pretty hefty. The 374-page manual for Gingerbread is now available for your perusing pleasure, with plenty of screenshots and details about the new OS. This includes information about the new Near Field Communication function found in the Nexus S:

image

And the new Downloads app:

image

The userguide can be downloaded as a PDF or viewed in the Google Docs viewer. Do let us know if you find anything of interest, won't you?

Source: @FreedomITA via @PaulOBrien

06
Dec
image

Gingerbread OTAs Not Rolling Out Just Yet - Arriving In The Coming Weeks. Yes, That Means Even You, Nexus One Owners

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Earlier today, Engadget posted a pretty sensationalist article (now deleted) implying that Gingerbread OTA updates are being streamed down to Nexus One device owners. Since I haven't seen a single confirmation yet, I grew more and more skeptical. To put an end to all rumors, Google's own Reto Meier just sent out a tweet refuting any OTA rumors and putting the Gingerbread update timeline as "in a few weeks":

image

And so the wait begins.

Source: @retomeier

06
Dec
image

[Updated] Google Finally Unveils Nexus S: Coming To USA On December 16th, Four Days Later In UK

Posted by in Devices By Manufacturer, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung
Last Updated: December 30th, 2011

After weeks of anticipation, leaked photos, snooped videos and widespread rumors, the next pure-Google device is official, and it's pretty much just what you expected. Bearing the title of the flagship device for the the freshly-baked Gingerbread (Android 2.3), the Samsung-made Nexus S includes:

  • 4.0" WVGA "Contour Display" SAMOLED screen
  • 1 GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird CPU
  • Android 2.3 Pre-installed
  • 16 GB internal storage (no microSD)
  • Quad-Band GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
  • Tri-Band 3G (900, 2100, 1700 MHz)
  • HSDPA (7.2Mbps) connectivity (no HSPA+)
  • Near Field Communication (NFC)
  • Anti-fingerprint display coating
  • Three-axis gyroscope
  • 1500 mAH Lithum Ion Battery
  • 5 MP rear camera w/ flash and 480P rec.

06
Dec
image

[Updated] Google Announces 2.3 Gingerbread! Here Is Everything You Need To Know

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News
Last Updated: December 10th, 2010

The moment we've been waiting for so many months - it's finally here! I can hardly contain my excitement as I'm writing this, but both Gingerbread and the Samsung Nexus S were officially announced 30 minutes ago. As expected, the new OS bears the version number 2.3 and brings updates to the SDK and the NDK as well SDK tools and the Eclipse ADT plugin.

As expected, a lot of the OS improvements are under-the-hood, which will result in better gaming, responsiveness, and overall Android experience.

New Features/Enhancements

OS/SDK/NDK

The new OS features and enhancements include:

  • enhancements for game development, including a new concurrent garbage collector, more native APIs, faster event distribution, updated video drivers, and new sensors (gyroscope) - this is amazing for developers; expect gaming to get a lot more responsive and versatile
  • lots and lots of attention in the above bullet point has been given to the NDK - the Native Development Kit.

28
Nov
images (1)

[Updated] Android 2.3 And 3.0 Discovered On Nexus One In Adobe AIR Performance Tests

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Note: As Frandroid has shown us via the comments below, the OS version and build are easy to fake, and the Honeycomb results were indeed faked by them. Whether the Gingerbread ones are also fake or not is not confirmed, but all signs point to that.

We just spotted Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) and 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) on Adobe's AIR Benchmark site, which was designed to test Adobe AIR performance on mobile devices. Interestingly, both new Android OS builds were running on a Nexus One, with no Nexus S or GT-i9020 (the handset rumored to be the Nexus S) in sight.

24
Nov
image

[Updated] New Leaked Photos Of Samsung Nexus S Running Gingerbread Show Up, Blurrycam Style

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

The folks over at XDA-developers have prepared an exclusive treat for all of us who are patiently (and impatiently) awaiting both Gingerbread and the Nexus S. One of their sources managed to get ahold of the upcoming flagship device from Samsung, which, as we all know, runs Gingerbread. He even spilled some beans on the specs:

  • ArmV7 CPU
  • Open GL ES Supported
  • 512 or 328MB Ram (Not 100% known)
  • 1GB or 2GB Internal Memory (Not 100% known)
  • 800×480 Screen Resolution
  • 4″ Screen Size
  • SuperAmoled2 – Possibly
  • 720P HD Video

Update: There was an update posted over at XDA claiming that the CPU is indeed a dual core Orion Cortex A9 running at 1GHz:

UPDATE: 11/25/10 13:20 PST: According to our source we have a Confirmed Dual Core Orion 1GHz CortexA9 running inside the Nexus S, we Can’t verify this ourself and are waiting for further verification.

15
Nov
image

Eric Schmidt At Web 2.0 Summit: Gingerbread Coming "In The Next Few Weeks," Will Support NFC, Aim For Location And Payment Processing

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, was scheduled to appear at the Web 2.0 Summit today, and while some speculated that he might finally announce Gingerbread to the world, I had my doubts about whether he would actually announce the update rather than talking about it on some tangent. Unfortunately, the truth ended up being somewhere in the middle, with Eric only brushing up on a few things and then going off about the general strategy.

Here's what went down, in my favorite bullet point style:

  • Eric came out and was asked about Android right off the bat.
  • He then pulled out a device that he said he was carrying with him for a while, which by the looks of it was none other than the Nexus S.

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