05
Apr
markettest

This probably isn't going to be nearly as exciting as the title might lead you to believe - though it's good news nonetheless.

Techfrom10's Samsung Galaxy S was accidentally given access to the test Android Market via an OTA update, and they stumbled upon some goodies while using it. The Market itself has undergone no noticeable changes aside from the addition of the "Content Rating" information publishers are now asked to include as part of their submissions to the Market, so there's not a lot to see on that end.

However, they did find new versions of Music (much like the previously leaked APK, but presumably a newer version), Desk Clock, Camera, and Gallery.

01
Apr
wm_amazonblaze (1)
Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Update: If you haven't caught on yet, you should probably check out the date on which this post was published.

This special Android Police project was brought to you by:

Amazon's been making waves in the Android blogosphere recently with such new products as the Appstore and the Cloud Player, but it looks like they're not done yet; in fact, they're only just starting. According to the same source who tipped us about the Appstore a few months back, the company will be launching the Blaze, which looks to be a smartphone of pretty high caliber, come August - and in a sentence, there's a lot to look forward to.

23
Mar

HTC launched the EVO 3D's ad campaign today with a YouTube video, and it's full of all sorts of multi-dimensional panning and various "woosh" noises:

Thanks Abhishek!

08
Feb
lg-optimus-3d-video-leaked-4
Last Updated: April 18th, 2011

Though I was initially quite skeptical of 3D on phone/tablet-sized devices, it seems that at least one manufacturer has pulled it off - so I'll give LG the benefit of the doubt with their upcoming Optimus 3D. Just as the device's name suggests, it will feature a (glasses-free) three-dimensional display in addition to dual cameras for 3D photography. But we already knew that; what we didn't know - up until now - was how LG planned to market the device.

Looks like "No Longer Just An Idea" will be LG's motto for the Optimus 3D - the same words were displayed at the end of their official teaser from last week.

08
Jan
IMG_8328

I've been roaming the booths of CES for 3 days now, and I think I've seen almost everything even remotely related to Android that was worth seeing. One company, Recon Instruments, has been on my mind since the beginning, however, and I'm really glad I finally made it to their booth today.

Their current product, called Transcend, is a full snow goggles solution incorporating a little color LCD screen in the bottom right corner. This screen is small but it gets magnified optically to show a whole array of information, such as your current speed, temperature, altitude, time, vertical odometer, and the trail map overlaid on top of Google Maps (among other things).

06
Jan
galaxy-tab-lte-vzw-ofc

With all the new tablets from players like Motorola, ASUS, and Acer, it goes without saying that Samsung was starting to feel a little jealous - and so, in partnership with Verizon, it decided to do something about the situation.

Namely, the company has released an upgraded Galaxy Tab, complete with a 1.2GHz Hummingbird processor (the original model only had a 1GHz unit), an upgraded rear camera (it's now 5MP as opposed to the previous generation's 3MP), and an LTE radio. For now, it's a Verizon exclusive, and we're still waiting to hear about the pricing and availability so, in the meantime, feast your eyes on the press release below.

28
Dec
cps-motorola-cliq-2-front-side

While Motorola's certainly got a few exciting devices in its pipeline - the dual-core Olympus and the Honeycomb tablet both look extremely intriguing - it looks like the company also plans to launch something considerably less high-end: the sequel to its first Android phone ever, the Cliq.

 cps-motorola-cliq-2-front-side cps-motorola-cliq-2-front 

cps-motorola-cliq-2-front-back cps-motorola-cliq-2-side

Cell Phone Signal was sent the above pictures of the Cliq 2, formerly known as the Begonia. As you can see, it features a relatively nondescript profile - not too bulky; not amazingly thin - as well as a honeycomb-like keyboard design. However, I wouldn't get my hopes up for Honeycomb on this phone if I were you - MOTOBLUR is clearly visible in the first two images, and Cell Phone Signal was also told that a January 19th release is likely, as is an official announcement at CES 2011.

03
Dec
image_thumb28

By now we've already seen the PlayStation Phone in a video or two, a number of pictures, and the usual batch of rumors. However, one of the few things we haven't known about the device is what its camera will be like. Well as of today, you can officially cross camera quality off the list of unknowns - four pictures taken by a certain "Sony Ericsson Zeus" have just hit Picasa:

IMG_20101130_142005 IMG_20101122_202432
IMG_20101117_100941 IMG_20101130_081652

A little digging revealed that all of these pictures were captured by a 5MP camera (with an aperture rating of 2.4 and a focal length of 4.1mm), and as the second one shows, it is indeed accompanied by a flash.

09
Oct
image

 Earlier this week, BGR leaked a likely $399 on-contract price tag for the Sprint's version of the upcoming Galaxy Tab. Today, TmoNews dug up some slides showing T-Mobile's version of the tablet coming with the same $399 price tag (on a 2-year contract of course), albeit after a $50 rebate. The version that will free you from the carrier's firm grip will make you part with an additional $250 and cost a whopping $649.99.

Galaxy Tab Vs The iPad

Comparing this to the iPad, where $499 buys you a comparable WiFi-only 16GB version and $629 gets you the WiFi+3G one, the Tab fits kind of in the middle.

15
Sep
htc-london-lb-sept-0484

Along with the announcement of the less patriotic versions of the EVO 4G and G2, HTC informed attendees of their London press event today that the Sense UI overlay would be receiving an update - in addition to new cloud services through HTCSense.com.

What kind of new goodies does the updated Sense have in store? We'll break down what we've got so far:

  • Completely new video/photo capture, edit, upload, and share system
  • New video/photo capture effects/distortions
  • Offline maps
  • Car app
  • Updated e-mail app
  • Probably a lot more updates to integrated Sense apps like Friend Stream
  • Presumably, back-end improvement for performance, bugs, etc.