android 3.0 - 2/6 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Pre-orders For Wi-Fi-only XOOM Live On B&H For $599

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors, XOOM

A couple of weeks ago, word popped up of a UK site starting to take pre-orders for the Wi-Fi-only version of the Motorola XOOM, being available in early April. Not long after that images leaked of the same model showing up in a Sam's Club training center with a price tag of $539. Not to be outdone, yet another story arose saying office retailer Staples would be supplying the slate for $600 with employee training starting on March 23. Today the rumors take another step into becoming reality, as site B&H is now taking pre-orders for the Wi-Fi model of the Honeycomb debut for $599, making them the first American site (to our knowledge) to offer pre-orders on the carrier-free model.

Mar

Dolphin HD v4.5 Update Adds Hardware Acceleration Support For Honeycomb Devices, Now Smooth As Butter (Kind Of)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Last Updated: March 13th, 2011

Dolphin HD, one of the most popular Android browsers, has been pretty unusable on large tablet screens due to choppiness and lag caused by the CPU having to work with a much bigger area. For example, when we got a demo unit of the Galaxy Tab, the problem was quite apparent to the point of Dolphin being downright frustrating on relatively complex sites.

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" came to the rescue with hardware acceleration capabilities, which allowed shifting all the UI processing from the CPU to the GPU. However, since the first Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola XOOM, launched 2 weeks ago, only the stock browser has been offering the benefits of hardware acceleration and allowing for very smooth scrolling, zooming (xooming?), panning, etc, while Dolphin remained as choppy as before.

Mar

Market Analyst Rips Honeycomb, Suggests Google Stick To The Web

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

Last Updated: March 14th, 2011

In what is sure to ruffle a few feathers with Android users, a representative of a research company Wednesday sunk his teeth into Google's Android 3.0 'Honeycomb,' saying it is "by the geeks, for the geeks, and of the geeks" (we were confused, as we thought that was a compliment). The analyst left little hope for mass adoption of the new tablet-tailored version of Android.

In his note to investors, Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said Android 3.0 is doomed to fail next to Apple's iPad 2. He blames Google's background on the web as the culprit for the spanking he expects the OS to take.

Mar

Motorola XOOM + Android 3.0 Review: Sweet As Honey

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, Reviews, Tablet Reviews, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

The Motorola XOOM: Ever since it was first teased at D: Dive Into Mobile, the Android community hasn't been able to take its eyes off the tablet's dual-core processor, gorgeous 10.1-inch display, and - last but certainly not least - Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system.

Well now the device has officially gone on sale, and I've been ~~testing~~ falling in love with a review unit for the last few days. Typically, I end up hating devices that I adore at first blush, but the XOOM is an entirely different story - the device is far from perfect (where are the tablet apps?), but I have yet to find anything truly upsetting about it.

Feb

Honeycomb Statue Arrives At Google's Headquarters

Posted by Will Shanklin in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Off-Topic

Who needs to visit Disneyland to feel like a kid again? Google's collection of dessert statues that correspond to their Android releases has a new addition today, in the Honeycomb statue.

Last week, we were wondering when we could expect a shrine in the Googleplex, and had the following exchange with the search giant:

Less than a week later, we give you (drumroll, please): THE HONEYCOMB.

What's that? You aren't satisified with a still shot? Check out: VIDEO OF THE HONEYCOMB.

Families, you can proceed to change your vacation itinerary from Anaheim to Mountain View, as Google's kingdom just got a little bit more magical.

Feb

Monster Madness Powered By Unreal Engine 3 Creeps Into The Android Market, Complete With Zombies, Weapons, And... Gingerbread/Tegra Requirements

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

Earlier this month, along with the CNN app for tablets, Google demoed 2 3D games that utilized both of Tegra 2's CPU cores - Monster Madness and Great Battles. The former of these games, Monster Madness, just quietly crept into the Android Market with a hefty $10 price tag. The price of 2 Starbucks coffees is a bit steep for a game, but not unheard of.

So, what does Monster Madness offer you? Zombies, upgradeable weapons, power-ups, destructible worlds, and great 3D graphics, powered by Unreal Engine 3. Not a bad package at all, don't you think? Additionally, local co-op mode via Wi-Fi means you can gang up on those monsters with your friends who can jump in and out of the game as they please.

Feb

Motorola XOOM System Dump Now Available To Download

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

This one's for you, developers: XDA user adub007 just posted a full Motorola XOOM system dump. What new and unprecedented goodies does it contain? That remains to be seen... feel free to download the 112MB (183MB when unpacked) file and start digging for yourself.

Android Police mirror

Source: XDA-Developers via Droid Life

Feb

Honeycomb Wallpapers Ripped Out Of SDK, Now Available To Download

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Turns out yesterday's update to the Android 3.0 SDK introduced more than just finalized APIs - the folks over at Android Central have discovered seven completely new wallpapers as well as two higher-res versions of existing ones in the final SDK's Launcher2.apk.

At 1920x1280, the images are just the right size for showing off your Honeycomb love on any of your devices. If they catch your eye, be sure to grab them for yourself using the download link below.

Download Link

Source: Android Central Forums via Android Central

Feb

Google Releases Final Honeycomb SDK, SDK Tools r10, And ADT Plugin 10.0.0

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

It's definitely an exciting day for Android developers - first, Motorola confirmed that their XOOM tablet will be open for development, and now the the final Android 3.0 SDK is available. Additionally, the SDK tools and ADT plugin have been updated to versions r10 and 10.0.0, respectively, with the following improvements and additions:

UI Builder improvements in the ADT Plugin:
New Palette with categories and rendering previews. (details)

More accurate rendering of layouts to more faithfully reflect how the layout will look on devices, including rendering status and title bars to more accurately reflect screen space actually available to applications.

Feb

This Changes Everything: Motorola XOOM's Bootloader Will Be "Unlockable/Relockable"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Sure, the first part of that title might sound like a Steve Jobs quote, but Motorola's latest tweet merits the expression:

That's right - unlike almost all other Motorola devices in recent memory, the XOOM will ship with an unlocked (or at least "unlockable/relockable") bootloader. That means modders will be free to create custom ROMs and kernels for the tablet - not as surprising as it would be were the XOOM not a flagship Google device, but still very reassuring.

Now, Motorola, about your other devices' bootloaders...

Source: Motorola (Twitter)